


The Sheikah Story

by rgmichael



Series: Hylian Origins [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Adventure, Sheikah
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-11 20:55:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7069693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rgmichael/pseuds/rgmichael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exile for most of her life, Ilysa has become a powerful member of the Sheikah on the surface. Although her relationships seem more difficult than they should, perhaps it is beyond her control. Fate can be an ally or an adversary, and Ilysa is unclear as to where she stands with fate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Expedition

**Author's Note:**

> Taking place prior to the events of The Skyward Story, follow the journey of the Sheikah tribe member Ilysa, and discover how she eventually comes to meet the Hero of the Goddess. This story contains mostly original characters, however it will (I am planning to, at least,) crossover with the existing characters later on.
> 
> I am super busy trying to not drown in student debt so later chapters are currently on pause.

She opened her eyes to see a stone ceiling, dimly lit by the sunlight pouring in through a window across the room. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before sitting up and tossing the sheets aside. She knew she was considered lucky to have a room this large, especially compared to some of the others. Her bed was pushed against right up against the wall, and there was a long dresser next to it. In the corner on the other side of the dresser were two wooden chairs on either side of a small table, and a wardrobe on the opposite wall. There was a window in the corner above one of the chairs, and another on the wall next to the door. She had left all of her furniture on the outside areas of the room, which left her space for a large circular rug in the middle of the room, where she usually did her physical training.

She stood up from the bed and walked over to the wardrobe: inside, there was an assortment of robes and tunics, some equipment belts, and at the bottom were a few pairs of boots and sandals. She grabbed a pair of tall, grey boots and a pair of light blue robes, as well as one of the belts. She went over to the dresser and placed the stuff she had just grabbed on top. Mounted on the wall, above the dresser was a round mirror. She used it to help her braid her white hair in a long braid that sat over her shoulder. She then opened a few different drawers and got dressed, putting on a white woven full-body suit. The suit was made of a special material that her people used as an armor underneath their robes. It went up high on her neck all the way to around her mid-thigh, but it left her arms and most of her legs bare. It was skin tight, but was also reasonably comfortable, and it had to breathe well in order to maintain comfort in the desert conditions she was so accustomed to. She put on her blue robes over the suit; the robes were tight in her torso, but loose around her legs. She put on her grey boots, tucking the robes around her legs into the boots, and attached the belt around her hips. She opened the drawer closest to her bed, and took out two daggers, a chain, and an empty bottle, placing each of these items around her belt. She quickly made her bed before making her way across the room to the door, grabbing a bright green sash from a hook on the way out.

The sun shone down on her once she exited her room, and she made her way across an arid port, towards the pier. A small group was already there, so she quickened her pace across the plaza. 

“Nice of you to join us this morning Ilysa.”

“Sorry chief,” Ilysa stared a hole into the ground in front of her as the chief crossed her arms. Chief Irsia was a role model to Ilysa, and she hated having to disappoint her in any way.

“However I’m glad to see you’re fully prepared. As I was just informing everyone who was on time, today’s expedition is going to be in the far north, beyond the Ice Mountains. We believe that there is something there worth investigating, and you are all fortunate enough to learn from this entire journey. We will be travelling there via spatial rifts, as well as old fashioned trekking through tunnels, fields, what have you. Any questions?” None one around Ilysa seemed to make any inclination of asking a question, but she figured there was no harm in trying to look eager.

“How long do we get to stay on the expedition?”

“Well young one,” Irsia uncrossed her arms and dropped her arms, but kept her hands sticking out, palms up, “As long as it takes to uncover the mysteries. Will that be a problem?”

“Problem? It will be a privilege.”

“Good answer. Alright, everyone grab a pack from the boat when it arrives and meet by the spatial rift in Lanayru Mines.” Irsia walked off towards the entrance of the port while the several students and apprentices around her took off towards the end of the dock awaiting the boat, a few of them bumping into her and shoving her in the process. Ilysa was new to this tribe, having only arrived a year or two ago, making her an outsider to the tight-knit group of youth that made up her class. Before that, Ilysa had lived in almost complete solitude in Lanayru Desert, which was nearly thousands of years in the future. Somehow, most of the Sheikah had managed to manipulate the timeshift stones using spatial magic to create a home that could not be accessed by outsiders, including a young and lonely Ilysa. She had been forced to survive in the desert alone, having been abandoned there as a child. Alone, Ilysa had learned how to fend off monsters, survive in the harsh desert climate and she even managed to hone some of her magic powers, however nothing compared to how far along she had come in the last year since Irsia had discovered her. The transition had been weird, but ultimately, she grew to love her new home, even if the tribe didn’t always welcome her with open arms.

With no one at her side, Ilysa walked over to the dock, and jumped off into the shallow waters at the beginning of the dock, while the other youth carried on at the end of it. She closed her eyes and focused her mind while taking a step, feeling herself rise a few inches. After repeating the process, she opened her eyes and looked down to see her feet on top of the surface of the water. Walking on water was something Irsia had shown her how to do in the first few months, and they were both impressed with how quickly and how well she did it. Ilysa looked out towards the sea, and about a league away, she could see the large sailboat, slowly making its way towards the port. Flicking her braid over her shoulder to rest on her back, Ilysa proudly walked out towards the boat, a smirk running across her face when she heard the awe that washed over the other students. She walked very proudly all the way across the sea to the boat, earning her a cheer from one of the crew onboard. Using the chain from her belt, she hooked it on a pole that someone had extended to her, and she walked up the side of the boat onto the deck. On board, there were a few Sheikah members, but mostly it was the Robots who buzzed around. She really loved the Robots, and she waved over to Skipper before walking over to Ignaas, a friend of hers. He was a very nice man, who was also easy on the eyes. He was a talented warrior, and a smart ally to have.

“You just couldn’t wait to see me, now could you ‘Ysa?” he grinned at her, and gave her a coy wink, “I was almost there; you have to work on your patience.”

“Very funny ‘Naas. We’re actually going on an expedition, and you guys have the gear I need. I thought I’d come see you before I disappear into the Ice Mountains.”

“She’s taking you up north? Consider yourself lucky, only the good classes get to go that way. I don’t think a class has gone since my year, which was almost five years ago.”

“Oh that’s right, I keep forgetting that you’re just a withered old man.”

“Watch it, or I’ll throw you over board with my very un-withered arms.”

“I was just teasing you ‘Naas. So, where’s the gear?”

“It’s in those crates right behind you.”

“Perfect. See, I was late this morning, so I have to be the first one to meet at the spatial rift to make up for it. Balance out the late with the early, isn’t that how it works?”

“I suggest you just show up on time after this though, it’s much simpler. Do you know when you guys will be back?”

“Irsia just said that we’ll be done when the mystery is uncovered or something. So, it could be days, it could be months. We won’t really know until we’re done I guess.”

“So, this next twenty minutes is the only time I get with you before you leave?”

“Yeah, so let’s not get sappy; there’s no time for that.”

“Well I guess I can tell you about our expedition then.”

“Holy Farore! I almost forgot you guys just went out; did you find anything?”

“Nothing out of the usual: some fancy artifacts and a new ore site. It wasn’t the sort of truth we were looking for. I tell you, one day, we’re going to find a legitimate method of revealing truth, whether it be harnessing magic in some unforeseen way or finding some ancient device: we will succeed.”

“Don’t get too down, the Gossip Stones invented by your family’s ancestors are very impressive.”

“Gossip Stones are just the beginning if I have anything to do with it.”

“You mentioned artifacts: anything I might be able to take a look at?”

“Not really: I did mention they were fancy artifacts didn’t I? I’m pretty sure I said that.”

“Fancy-chancy, let me take a look before we get back; I only need a few minutes.”

“Alright, fine: but if I get in trouble for this, it’ll be on your pretty little head.”

Ignaas escorted Ilysa down to the cargo hold beneath the ship’s deck. He took a key from inside his robes and unlocked a very small chest: inside there was an object about the size of someone’s face, wrapped in a few layers of cloth. Ilysa took hold of the wrapped object, which was slightly heavier than she expected, but not at all heavy. She slowly and carefully unwrapped the object, revealing a square-ish stone with a few juts and a small emblem on the front, although it was hard to make out. The stone was unique in its magical aura, but it had a certain familiarity that she was unable to pinpoint.

“We found it at the first of the three sites, thought it looked interesting enough, so we wrapped it up and I put it in my bag. On our way from the second site to the third site, out of nowhere, my bag starts vibrating. Sure enough, the stone is rumbling around, and it gets stronger to closer I get to this larger boulder. Out of curiosity, we move the giant boulder and there’s this huge underground grotto underneath where the boulder was.”

“So, you think that there’s something important in that grotto?”

“Well at first we all went nuts looking for something, anything really, but after a few hours of searching we decided to keep moving, and just as I thought I had imagined the whole thing, it did it again when we were passing by a cliff-face. I look around and notice some cracks running up the rocks, so I convince the others to break through it, and sure enough, we found another giant cave.”

“So, is this the stone of caves? Did you find anything at all in either cave?”

“Not really: some fairies flying around, lots of Keese.”

“Sounds more like agony.”

“Anyway, that’s the big find of the trip. Hopefully you guys find the matching ‘Stone of Random Buried Treasure’ to go with this piece of rock.”

“Hey! You’re always so focused on finding the key to unlocking the truth of everything, well life just handed you a rock that shakes when there’s a secret cave nearby; that has got to mean something, don’t you think?”


	2. The Gorge

“Nice to see you early this time, Ilysa. Trying to balance out your previous lateness by being early now? Solid attempt.”

“Sorry about earlier, I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

“Good phrasing: ‘I’ll try not to let it happen again’. You’re indicating the remorse of your actions, while also preventing false guarantees by using try as part of your main clause.”

“Right, that was my intention exactly, not because I’ll probably sleep-in a lot in the future and have no hope of actually fighting that.”

“I heard that your abilities have become more prominent: good job today, walking across the sea like that. An ordinary human would have thought you to be a goddess yourself.”

“It was just like you taught me, except, I had to be extra focused when I actually got out there, because I’m not exactly certain how well I can swim.”

“There’s no motivation like the instinct of survival, now is there?”

“A motivation based on love is often much stronger.”

“Very true,” Irsia observed Ilysa for a moment before turning towards a crawlspace behind her. “Beyond these rocks is Lanayru Gorge. In the time rift, the great Thunder Dragon Lanayru lives here, but when we exit the time rift, the illness that currently plagues him will have taken its toll, as the gorge serves as his resting place. The cliff below his resting place is where we find the spatial rift that will take us north.”

“How can Lanayru have a resting place? He is an immortal creature, so if he dies, that would mean his is in fact mortal.”

“There are three great dragons who protect this land, each of them are immortal beings. However, it is unspeculative that in the future, Lanayru is not alive; he may not be dead, but he is not alive.”

“There must be something we can do to save him from an undead fate. We are in the past, therefore anything we do can technically change the future.”

“We must not intervene; the spatial rift only exists here because of the paradox that is created when an immortal being dies. When we travel out of the time rift, we will have a limited time on our expedition to return before the Hero of the Goddess saves Lanayru and the spatial rift vanishes.”

“What do you mean, Hero of the Goddess? Who is that?”

“You need not know that, and it is none of your business. I shouldn’t have started this conversation, I apologise.”

“It is against the way of the Sheikah to lie in the way that you are: the truth must be preserved, and it is not our place to manipulate what is already fact.”

“You are out of place.”

“I have already proven to you that I can take what you teach me and improve it; I can also teach myself what you refuse to. Perhaps Lanayru could tell me? He’s just beyond this wall is he?”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I would and you know it, so save us both the effort and just tell me.”

“This isn’t the place, nor is it the time. When we return from our expedition, I will tell you everything you want to know.”

“That sounds much more reasonable.”

The other students arrived after a very long and awkward silence between Ilysa and Irsia. Irsia then went on to explain to the others about the spatial rift and Lanayru, deflecting any questions as to why he passes away or why an illness affects him at all. They made their way into the gorge, which was another active area filled with robots and life. The horizon was lined with green hills and mountains, while the cliffs above them were filled with lush vegetation that teemed with life. It was hard to imagine that all of this would somehow become scolded under the sun and the life would wither away into dust and sand. While Ilysa was captivated by the sheer energy of the area, the others were in awe at the sight of an enormous dragon at the edge of the gorge. Lanayru was a magnificent sight, and even though Ilysa knew he was ill, he didn’t seem to be in such a bad shape. As the group made their way over to him, he extended his arms in a welcoming gesture,

“Welcome, friends, to Lanayru Gorge. Do not think I am narcissistic for_” he had to pause for a moment while he coughed extremely loud, “_for naming this place after myself. I believe you are all here to study your surroundings before you depart for the Gate of Time and return many years in the future. Be sure to take in what you see, because things will be much different the next time you visit the gorge.”

The group spent a large portion of the afternoon at the gorge; they had been told by Irsia to observe every distinct detail of the gorge that made it unique. Ilysa already knew what the gorge looked like in the future, having lived in the desert for many years, so she knew what to look for: the way the air currents moved over the cliffs, carrying humidity and life; the perceivable patterns in which the robots moved around; how sounds echoed across the chasm: these were all signs of life that would disappear. It didn’t take her long to find all of the obvious things, so instead of walking around aimlessly, she kneeled on the ground nearby the timeshift pedestal, closed her eyes and opened her mind to the area around her. She immediately felt the life energy all around her: the robots, the insects, groups of birds nesting nearby, Lanayru himself, the other students; it was almost overwhelming. She had to retreat from it for a moment just to catch her breath, but she quickly opened her mind again letting the energy engulf her. This time, she maintained a focus on the strongest energy she could detect. She went so deep into the energy, she swore she was feeling the energy of the ground itself. She allowed her mind to dive into that large energy beneath her, farther and farther, until she couldn’t go any further, when the strength of the energy simply faded and there was nothing more to dive into. She allowed her mind to pause there, at the edge of an infinite void far beneath their feet, staring blindly into the abyss in silence, until another energy appeared; far out in the nothingness there was a distinct energy, small but strong, waiting there as if offering an invitation to venture further. She debated returning to the many energies on the surface, but this singularity of energy was too tempting to turn away from; her mind leaped into the void, approaching the energy with a cautious but eager attitude. Once she was closer, she could feel the way the energy mirrored her own energy, but there was something twisted in this mirror image. Suddenly she felt herself being pushed by the energy, pushed out of the void and through the ground until she opened her eyes and was actually being pushed across the gorge towards the edge of a cliff. Ilysa heard the screams and shouts of other students as she fought to find a way out, but as she looked at her attacker, she was startled to be staring into the darkest yet brightest pair of red eyes she had ever seen. She noticed the way her attacker was familiar, but before she could pinpoint it, she felt the emptiness of air beneath her before gravity took over and she felt herself plummeting down the gorge. She adjusted herself in the air so that she was diving towards the ground, arms tucked to her sides. She focused her eyes to where she knew she would impact the ground, and reached her hand in front of her head, releasing the strongest pulse of magic she had ever managed. The last thing she saw was an image of white where there should have been rock, but then the exhaustion of using so much magic hit her, and everything faded to black.


	3. Desert of Ice

She woke up cold.

She woke up very cold.

Why did she wake up cold?

When did any place in Lanayru Region become cold?

She wasn’t at the gorge anymore.

Where was she?

Ilysa opened her eyes, which were met with a white and grey image before a wind blew across her, prompting her to close her eyes again. She rolled over onto her stomach, and pushed herself off of the ground, so that the wind was at her back. Her mind felt numb, but she couldn’t remember why; did she hit her head? But how would she have hit her head? And why was there snow everywhere? Wasn’t she in the desert?

It all came back to her in an instant: the expedition, Lanayru, the energy, the shadow, and the fall. She now remembered the image of white at the bottom of the cliff, and she realised that she had somehow opened the spatial rift, which meant that she was somewhere in the Ice Mountains. Looking around her now, she realised exactly how these parts got their name; there was snow and ice in all directions. The harsh wind was carrying bits of ice on its breath, bombarding her bare arms with a constant sting. 

Her mind now racing a mile a minute, she tried to quickly gather her wit. She looked down to her belt: two daggers, a chain, and an empty bottle. It wasn’t much to work with, but it would have to be enough. She thought about the basic requirements of survival: air, water, food, and shelter. She took a deep breath of the cold, dry air: it wasn’t exactly the best air she had breathed but it was air and her lungs appreciated it enough to keep her alive. Next was water: Ilysa opened the bottle, crouched down, and packed it as tightly as she could with snow. Once she found shelter, she could make a fire and melt the snow, giving her water. Then there was food; that would be much more difficult, so she decided to skip that and go straight for shelter for now. Turning on the spot, she observed that she was in some sort of frozen fjord, with steep mountains on opposite sides, and an endless sight of snow in the other two directions. She made her way towards one of the cliffs, where a small group of trees had managed to grow despite the conditions. Once she was standing at the bottom of one of the trees, she put her agility to the test and climbed to the first set of large branches, before taking out one of her daggers and cutting them down. Limb by limb, she cut off enough lumber to create a makeshift shelter, one that would be good enough to keep the wind off of her bare arms, and hopefully good enough to protect a fire. She jumped out of the tree and began assembling a lean-to against the largest tree there. Bit by bit, the shelter was formed and eventually she sat leaning against the trunk of the tree, sheltered from the wind. However, she didn’t relax for more than a moment, because she then focused on making a fire. Ilysa gathered all of the scrap branches she didn’t use for the lean-to and stacked them in a small cone formation. All that was left was to light the fire.

She outstretched her right hand, fingers pointing straight at the stack of wood. She tried her best to release an energy hot enough to light the wood on fire, but she couldn’t seem to muster the ability to do so.

“This is ridiculous,” she said out loud to herself, “I can bloody walk on water but I can’t make a stupid fire.” She tried again and again to light the fire, facing failure after failure until finally she screamed in frustration and the cone of branches and twigs lit ablaze. Ilysa sat there, breathing heavy, staring at the bright flames in curiosity; did her anger light the fire? Or did her scream release a surge of energy through her body? Regardless of how she did it, she had made a fire, and the snow around her was slowly melting, so she paid attention as to prevent the wood from getting too wet to burn. She took out the empty bottle and laid it near the fire, not too close of course, and it didn’t take long before it melted enough to drink, and she chugged the whole thing in a matter of seconds. She re-scooped some snow into it once she was done and repeated this process two more times. Ilysa had been taught very early on that water was a sacred treasure during her time alone in the desert, and she was not going to let this abundance of it go to waste.

Now properly hydrated, protected, and warm, she could slowly begin to feel her magic stores replenish. She still wasn’t entirely sure about what exactly she had been attacked by, but Irsia would have been able to handle it if it tried to attack any of the other students. Maybe Irsia already knew that Ilysa had gone through the spatial rift, and was organising the rest of the group before jumping through it herself. That would mean Ilysa wouldn’t be all alone for too long, and she would be reunited with her tribe soon enough.

Several hours had passed, and Ilysa was beginning to feel the anxiety of being deserted in some strange part of the Ice Mountains. Her stomach was also starting to feel emptier and emptier with every passing minute, which added to her discomfort; where was she supposed to find food around here? The only thing she had seen for the past several hours was snow, snow, and more snow. While hunger wasn’t the greatest feeling, she knew that she could last quite a number of weeks without food, so while she was still anxious about her lack of resources, she knew there was no reason to panic immediately. However, she was not ready to mentally commit to another exile situation, and tried to conceive an idea as to how she would find the expedition site. Ilysa knew that the class was supposed to travel to a Sheikah excavation site, somewhere rather deep in the Ice Mountains. The site had been used for approximately a decade, meaning that with or without her class, there were other Sheikah tribespeople at the site already. That meant that as long as Ilysa could find her own way to the site, she didn’t need to wait to be rescued and she could save herself. But how would she go about finding it? Ilysa sat by her slowly shrinking fire for what must have been another two hours when finally an idea hit her; Gossip stones had been created and scattered across the lands many, many years ago by Ignaas’ ancestors, and those stones were all connected through a complex magic that could allow her to communicate with the Sheikah over expansive distances. Generally, the Gossip Stones were buried underneath the ground until a musical melody was played within their proximity, but often groups of butterflies were attracted to the places where the Gossip Stones were. So, all Ilysa had to do was find a group of butterflies… in the middle of an arctic landscape; how hard could it be?


	4. Frozen Wilderness

Her arms still bare and exposed, Ilysa had left the comfort of her lean-to in search for some sort of break in the deep snow where she could start looking for signs of Gossip Stones. So far, all she had managed to discover was that exploring the Ice Mountains without sleeves was a big mistake. She guessed that there were thicker, warmer, more protective clothes in the pack she picked up from the ship, but that bag had been lying on the ground somewhere nearby before she was attacked and forced off of the ledge at Lanayru Gorge. The thought that she could have been comfortably exploring the area, alongside her class was aggravating at best, but she was able to cling on to the shred of hope of finding her way out of this entire mess, even if that shred of hope was starting to wane like the sun across the sky; it would be dark in just a few hours, and once it got dark, Ilysa’s odds of finding anything leading to a Gossip Stone would drop. She also figured that as cold as it already was, things could only get colder once the sun was set over the horizon, which meant that she had to hurry up if she wanted to get out of the snow soon. She had been searching all along one of the two cliff-faces for signs of caves or areas that a Gossip Stone would have been placed, and the further and further she searched, she realised that the fjord had opened up into a vast valley, mostly flat, but with mountains hugging all of the edges; it almost appeared that she was standing at the edge of a giant field that had been buried by the deep snow, but she could see the uneven terrain despite the blurred transitions from hill to flatland. One part of the landscape did however catch her eye; a winding line maybe a mile out stretched across the field into what appeared to be another fjord on the other side of the valley, which was probably twice that distance. She tried following the line to see where the other end of the supposed river was, but somewhere about a few hundred metres out she couldn’t see it anymore, but it was sort of pointing in her direction…

The moment she realised she was standing on top of a frozen river, she immediately began digging down through the snow; if she could determine which way the river normally flows, she could very easily follow it to a bigger body of water, and hopefully eventually, find some form of civilisation or at least an escape from the icy conditions. She had dug down about 5 or 6 feet before hitting solid ice, which is when she started chipping away at it with her dagger. Little by little, she chiselled away the ice until she could start to see the flowing of the water underneath the now thin ice. The water was definitely flowing out into the valley and towards the fjord across the field, which meant that was where she was going to head. She climbed out of the hole she had dug herself into, before bursting out into a run across the expansive terrain. Irsia would probably tell her to conserve her energy, but she knew that combatting the cold for a prolonged period of time would have the same effect on her energy as the amount of energy she would exert while running, but at least running didn’t leave her with frozen limbs and skin.

It didn’t take her very long to reach the other side of the valley, but as she neared the opening in the mountains and cliffs, she realised that the frozen river had led her towards a massive frozen waterfall, and the descent appeared slightly too large to jump down; even though there was snow that would act as a cushion, she didn’t know how much snow there was, or if ice would simply break her body if she were to fall on it. She knew that following the body of water was still her best bet, but she needed to be sure that she could safely descend down the frozen waterfall. She stood there trying to come up with a way down, but each time she thought of something, a fairly obvious hole in that plan who arise and she’d have to start all over. She was beginning to lose hope when her vision started to fade in and out, but instead of the blackness that would usually accompany the loss of vision, a warm seascape flickered in and out before her eyes. She looked around, as the image before her switched repeatedly from frozen waterfall to seaside paradise. As she looked to her feet, she witnessed the snow fade from snow to water one last time before the flickering stopped and she was staring into the snow once more. It took her a moment to comprehend what had just happened; was she experiencing some form of time rift, or did something else cause her to see what she had? She thought carefully for a moment before she realised the alternate vision mirrored her own memory of that very morning, when she had run out over the water towards the sail boat. But why had she seen it? Better yet why was it important that she saw it?

After a minute she clued into the relevance of her memory before feeling quite frustrated that she hadn’t made the connection earlier; her vision showed her a large body of water, its tides flowing freely in their unfrozen state. If the water had been flowing on the other side of the valley, and that water flowed in this direction, then surely that same water did not merely stop in its tracks at these frozen waterfalls; somehow, despite the lack of current in the waterfall, the water was still flowing freely enough to move downstream. Therefore, all she had to do was find out how the water was still flowing downstream to find her own way down.

She dug out another hole down towards the thick ice, and repeated the process of chipping away the ice until she could clearly see the movement of water through the ice; while the current didn’t seem as strong on this end of the valley, there was still a considerable amount of movement: enough that indicated the continuous flow of water. She climbed out of the second hole, as the light in the sky rapidly faded, the sun clearly setting somewhere over the mountains. She carefully made her way over the edge of the waterfall and observed the frozen structure for any signs of movement. No water was moving along the frozen surface, but the frozen structure was so large that she couldn’t see through it, which meant that there was a chance that the water was flowing freely within a frozen shell. While her knowledge of ice and energy told her that the water would have to be frozen solid at these temperatures, she didn’t have any other options and this point, and she closed her eyes, concentrating her mind on the waterfall about halfway down; in her mind, she pictured the waterfall cracking, and the harder she concentrated, the more and more rips across the structure she could hear from below. After a moment, a large crack echoed across the fjord, and so Ilysa opened her eyes to see the ice cracking all along the waterfall, the point of her concentration now shattering as a massive stream of water erupted from within. Ilysa swiftly got up and made a run for the edge of the river, as the waterfall began to shatter all over, the cracks having made their way to the top. Before she could get out of the way, the entire sheet of ice underneath her broke off from cliffs and quickly rushed towards the falls, and before she got a chance to jump to solid ground, the sheet of ice flipped over the edge, taking Ilysa along with it.

The air rushed past her as the neared the ground below, much of the ice and snow having been washed away by the sudden flow of water. She had about 3 seconds before she would hit the freezing waters, and presumably be taken by the powerful current which would sweep her underneath the next shelf of ice where she would drown before ever having said goodbye to anyone.

One.

She closed her eyes and pictured her classmates, who were never particularly nice to her, but they were the closest things to friends she had.

Two.

A memory of Irsia echoed in her mind: “… before the Hero of the Goddess saves Lanayru…”

Three.

Two red eyes fixed upon a living shadow haunted her last moment.


	5. Athanaton

She didn’t open her eyes, she didn’t open up her mind to anything around her, but she was alive, that much she knew; how she was alive was a mystery to her, but it wasn’t a mystery that needed solving this second. She didn’t feel cold, she wasn’t in any pain, so there was no immediate emergency that needed her attention. The only thing she needed to focus on was her breath, and her heartbeat, which did feel a little troubled. She let herself wiggle her toes, which were a little stiff, but they did move. She did the same with her fingers, with similar results. Taking a sigh of relief that she was still in one piece, she slowly began to open her eyes: things were fuzzy, but clear enough to know that she was indoors somewhere. There was a warm glow emanating from something towards her left, and the ceiling was a dark brown, presumably made of wood, although things were fuzzy enough that she couldn’t even distinguish that much. She let herself listen to her surroundings instead, and even that too seemed to be dampened, as if she was hearing things through a solid door. She was however able to distinguish the roar of a powerful river, which almost sounded to be somewhere underneath her.

Despite her blurred vision, she sat up abruptly as she clued in to the fact that she was not at the bottom of some lakebed, or washed up alongside a frozen riverbank; someone or something had brought her here. As she sat up, her head voiced its displeasure at the sudden movement and suddenly she felt as if she were spinning and a strong feeling of nausea overcame her. Unwilling to lie back down, Ilysa decided to use her magic to try and heal herself, and although it made her much more tired, her head stopped pounding so loudly and her vision became a little clearer. It had cleared up enough that she could determine that there was a large fireplace in front of her across the room, and that there were ornaments and paintings in the nicely furnished room. There were two nicely cushioned couches on either side of the fireplace, each couch facing another to create a sort of common area. The walls appeared to be made of milled logs stacked on top of one another, and there was a plush blue rug covering most of the space. There was one window to the left of the fire, and Ilysa could clearly see the white expanse of snow and ice flying past the window; it had started to storm in between her escapades at the waterfall and now. She turned her head over her shoulder to see the wall opposite the fireplace was adorned with cabinets that seemed to comprise of a kitchen, and just to the right of the cabinets was a large door, painted the same colour blue as the rug. Another window stood above what she presumed was a sink or something, but from where she was sitting she couldn’t really tell. In front of the kitchen was a small wooden dining table, with three seats tucked in neatly. There were some lit candles on the table, which gave a little extra light in the otherwise fairly dark room.

She returned her focus to herself just to make sure she didn’t have any injuries, but she suddenly realised that she wasn’t even wearing her own clothes; her usual garments had been removed and she now wore a soft, thick charcoal-coloured tunic that went down to her mid-thighs, and although it seemed to also be a sleeveless item, her arms were wrapped with a grey cloth, that wrapped up even the back of her hands, going around the thumb to keep mobility in her fingers. Her legs were dressed in dark blue pants that were loose like her own, but they felt much thicker and these ones covered her feet as well. Regardless of how she got these clothes, she knew that this outfit was much more suitable for the icy conditions she was going to have to brave once more.

After waiting a few minutes just to make sure her head was really actually okay, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed she was on, and planted her feet on the soft, warm rug. Even though her feet were covered, she could still feel the softness and luxury of the material underneath her. She looked to the foot of the bed and saw a brown pair of boots that seemed like they would fit her, and so without even thinking, she leaned over to grab them. In her hands, she could feel the quality of the boots; they were a smooth leather of sorts, but she could see that there was a thick inner lining. She immediately began putting them on her feet, and she laced them up tightly. They were about halfway up her calf, and she could tell that whoever or whatever gave her these clothes was truly generous.

Ilysa stood up, her head still pounding a little bit, but not enough to stop her from taking a look around the room. She quickly noticed a small mirror sitting on the mantle of the fireplace and she walked over to it, noticing right away that her hair had been taken out of its braid and then had been braided differently into a bun that sat at the back of her head. She flinched a little when she saw that her face was covered in small bruises and cuts, probably from all of the shattered ice at the waterfall. As she was examining herself, the doorknob on the other side of the room turned, and as Ilysa turned around she saw a tall, somewhat young man enter the room. He was definitely not Sheikah: his skin was light, his hair was dark, and his eyes were a soft green. He stopped in his tracks when he saw that Ilysa was standing in the middle of the room, but he didn’t seem put off in any way, and continued to close the door behind him. He then sort of just stood there and grinned:

“I’m glad to see you’re awake. I was beginning to think you’d never come to.”

“I’m going to have to request you fill me in on what happened.” Ilysa remained wary, although her gut said that this man was a good person and an ally worth having.

“Well firstly, my name is Athanaton. I’ve lived here in the Ice Mountains since I was a small boy. I was headed down to the part of the river which is exposed to go fishing when I happened to find you: you had washed up on the riverbank. By the time I found you, you were practically dead but I managed to bring you back here in time. I presume your heritage provided you with a little extra strength than a typical human would possess, so maybe you would’ve been fine anyways.”

“So you’re the one who changed my clothes?” Ilysa crossed her arms.

“Well, to be fair, your clothes were soaking wet, ripped, and I needed to get you warm so that you didn’t die.”

“Fair enough.”

“I think the words you are looking for are thank you.”

“Thank you, Athanaton. My name’s Ilysa.”

“Actually, just call me Nate, the full name sounds weird to me somehow. Anyways, what brings you out into the middle of nowhere Ilysa?”

“I was supposed to go on an expedition, but things got weird and I sort of just ended up here without a moment’s notice. I wasn’t planning on freezing myself to death, but it almost happened anyways. I really am grateful that you helped me.”

“Don’t mention it, just be glad my mother’s old clothes fit you, otherwise you’d have been stuck with my less flattering clothes,” he said as he removed a large brown coat and hung it up on a rack by the door that she hadn’t noticed until now. This was when Ilysa actually took a second to notice what Nate looked like: his hair was a dark brown, and it was a bit curly and unruly, but he had pulled it back into a loose bun, which she had never seen on a male before, although she found herself wondering how he pulled it off so nicely. His skin was much lighter than any Sheikah she had met, but still seemed to have a darkened-tone that suited his angular jaw. He was probably around 6’2”, and he appeared very muscular underneath all of his clothes. Similar to what she was wearing, he wore a charcoal-coloured tunic that hugged his muscular torso, and his arms were wrapped in the same way as hers, allowing her to see the clear curve and bulges of his arms. He had a pair of black pants that were neatly tucked into a pair of dark brown boots that were laced up to just under his knees. The belt around his waist was a matching brown to his boots, and from it she saw a knife with a silver hilt sticking out from the blue sheath.

“Yes, thank you for the clothes as well; they are really quite beautiful considering how practical they are.”

“You are very welcome. You may as well keep them too: my mother passed many years ago and I don’t think anyone is going to fit in them as well as you do.”

“Well I am truly in your debt.”

“Please don’t mention it, despite the fact that you were nearly dead when I brought you here, I’ve enjoyed the company for the last three days.”

“Three days? I was unconscious for three days?”

“Well I discovered that the Headwaters were flowing again, so I assume that you somehow did that and fell the whole length. Considering the height and all of the ice at the bottom, I’d consider three days to be fairly short; you’re lucky to even be alive.”

“Well I guess that’s one positive outcome contrasted with countless negative ones.”

“How does one unthaw an entire frozen waterfall anyhow?”

“Apparently, not carefully.”


	6. The Old Kingdom

Nate had given Ilysa a large, woolen cape that she wore as he took her out of the first cabin, across a small field to a larger building. Inside, she realised that this larger building was serving as both a partial home and a barn for some livestock. Nate took a few minutes to show her around: on one side of the barn were the stalls for the herd of 15 goats, while the side furthest from the doors had another large, stone fireplace which gave some heat to the space, and there was another, larger kitchen than the one inside the cabin, accompanied by a dining table with four chairs. To the left of the space was a ladder that went up to a loft that Nate said had his own bedroom. Nate had been making some bread in the fireplace, and he took it out, and then brought out some butter and cheese before taking a seat at the table. Ilysa hadn’t realised how hungry she was, but apparently after a few days without a solid food source the body really can devour an entire meal without you thinking about it. After finishing a few helpings, Ilysa sat back in her chair feeling quite satisfied. Nate simply looked at her and chuckled,

“I don’t think anyone has ever enjoyed my bread so much before.”

“I mean I was starving, but it was actually quite good… I think; I didn’t really pay attention to how it tasted actually.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment either way.”

“Say, how’d you even make bread? I don’t exactly think any grains grow through several feet of snow and ice.”

“Even though you could never tell, this valley is actually only frozen for half of the year: the other half is actually quite green and beautiful.”

“You’re right: I would have never have been able to tell. So far, this hasn’t been my favourite destination.”

“Well, I mean you couldn’t have come at a worse time of year, try again in about three months and it will look drastically different.”

“No offense, but I don’t really plan on coming back. I wasn’t even supposed to be here in the first place.”

“I thought you said you were coming with an expedition.”

“Well, that’s where things get complicated.”

“Try me.”

“Alright, just remember you asked for it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I am part of a tribe of Sheikah who have sought refuge in a time rift near the Lanayru Mountains. Our presence there is only possible due to the manipulation of time shift stones, which have been uniquely tuned in that area to a specific frequency that only our tribe is capable of recreating; that is to say that no one outside of the tribe can access our time rift. However, we often must venture outside of our time rift in order to complete academic research that is pivotal in our people’s mission to discover the hidden secrets of life. We were planning to exit our time rift and head to our archeological site in the Ice Mountains; I discovered a dark, primal entity before we travelled some thousand years into the future and I accidentally went through a unique spatial rift caused by the existence of an immortal paradox combined with the dark energy itself. That essentially means that I traveled here, and that there is no foreseeable way for my people to know where I am in this time period, and it is entirely possible that they merely assume that I met my demise after being pushed off of an extremely tall cliff.” Ilysa paused at this point, deciding if there was anything else she could mention, but she was slightly taken aback by Nate’s calm demeanour. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“That would probably be due to the fact that I’ve heard stranger stories.”

“Does it get much stranger?”

“How does the idea of witnessing the emergence of demon hordes into the realm, and playing a crucial role in the war between the goddess and the Demon King, rank on the strange scale?”

“I would say it ranks fairly high; you were alive when the fissure split the earth?”

“Indeed: I lived in a community directly under the governance of the goddess. In the small numbers that we were, we each had a very specific role to play in the destined events that unfolded; my role was as a blacksmith. I was blessed by the goddess with an incredible talent that allowed me to imbue any weapon I forged with powerful magic. However, I was only able to create three swords in our era of harmony before the demon hordes arrived and turned our lives to ruin.”

“We are currently several hundred years after the events you are speaking of…”

“And you are now wondering how I am alive at all.”

“Correct.”

“I don’t know who I was before being blessed, but after the goddess gifted me with this talent, I was to be known as Athanaton; to my knowledge, the word is a version of language spoken by the Old Ones that translates to Immortal. Whether or not I am actually mortal is unbeknownst to me, but I have no intentions of testing my corporeal limits.”

“How did you survive the attacks of the demons? It was a horrible slaughter, which is why the surviving humans were gathered and sent to the heavens.”

“It seems, that the swords I did manage to forge have played a crucial role in the battle against the demons, and I can only presume that the goddess intended for me to continue to forge swords for her and her allies. It simply seems I never had the opportunity before the Demon King was sealed and more blades had no use in the battles to come.”

“I have heard of the Demon King and his hordes, but the details we are taught as Sheikah are limited. Could you teach me what really happened?”

“Some knowledge cannot be unlearned; are you sure you would like to know?” Nate furrowed his brow slightly as he waited for an answer. Ilysa thought briefly that perhaps she was never told for a reason, and that perhaps her mentors never told her in an effort to shield her from devastating knowledge. However, Ilysa remembered how Irsia had spoken of the Hero of the Goddess, and she knew that learning everything would somehow be essential in her future.

“Yes: I have the feeling that I might need to know it someday.”

“When the fissure cracked the surface, malicious hordes of demons emerged, corrupting the land and murdering the innocent, peaceful creatures that had lived in harmony; these hordes were led by a single Demon King, Demise. Demise appeared as a sort of parallel to Hylia, and the initial loss of mortal lives was devastating before Hylia could even retaliate. She knew that the demons sought the Sacred Power known as the Triforce; the Triforce was an ancient power left here by the Old Ones and it could give anyone who used it the ability to make any desire a reality. Once Hylia sent the surviving humans to the skies along with the Triforce, she rallied her troops against the demons. It seemed that the final battle between Hylia and Demise resulted in the sealing of Demise, preventing him from leading his hordes, which quickly began to fall to the victorious races that still resided on the surface: the Gorons, the Robots, the Mogmas, the Parella, the Kikwis, the three dragons, and the Sheikah all fought bravely against the final hordes. Hylia had been critically injured during her fight with Demise, and it seemed that the only way to keep him sealed was to sacrifice her immortality and reincarnate herself as a mortal, who could later wield the powers of the goddess to keep the spell active. Hylia also seemed to know that sealing Demise would only ever be a temporary fix, and she used the sword that I had forged for her, and tied its fate to the spirit of a hero, who would someday use the Triforce itself to destroy Demise once and for all.”

“This hero, how will he be able to use the Triforce if Hylia had hidden it?”

“That will be part of his journey; the hero can only use the Triforce when his spirit is fully balanced with courage, wisdom, and power. This is only possible by traveling through the Spirit Realm and forging his spirit with those qualities. Somehow, although on this part I never fully understood, the Goddess Sword will play a crucial role, but I do not know to what extent, or even how; I just know that Hylia linked that sword to the spirit of the hero.”

“When will the hero of the goddess emerge? Will Hylia be reincarnated at the same time?”

“My educated guess is that sometime, when the spell begins to weaken, the reincarnation of Hylia will be born in the clouds, as will the spirit of the hero be awakened. When that happens, they are intended to travel to the surface and complete some tasks that will awaken the immortal mind of Hylia within the reincarnation. During these tasks, the hero will also simultaneously begin training his spirit, and they will enact the Triforce together.”

“Where exactly is the Triforce?”

“Ah, see! Some questions have no clear answers; the only part that anyone knows is that the Triforce is somewhere in the sky, far out of harms reach.”

“I have one last question, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“Please, I have a lot of answers to share.”

“Do you have any idea what kind of evil being I encountered?”

“I believe that the being you encountered exists in an old legend of the Sheikah actually; it is said that during the creation of this world, the Old Ones created the realm to seal away a powerful evil that is referred to as The Shadow. The Shadow is an ancient, primal being, as you had identified earlier, that can adapt itself to take on the form and shape of any being, including the Old Ones themselves; this is why the Old Ones felt it necessary to create an entire realm to prevent it from copying their form, and thus copying their powers. Had it taken form as Din, Farore, or Nayru, The Shadow would have been capable of creating its own Dark Triforce, or possibly even using the Triforce itself. Once The Shadow was sealed far beneath the surface, it is said that The Shadow became the source of all evil, including the demon hordes and the Demon King himself. However, the laws of the realm indicate that energy cannot be created or destroyed: it must already exist. So, in order for all of these evils to have emerged over time, it means that The Shadow has weakened itself exponentially since having been originally sealed. How it was able to free itself only after you discovered it is a mystery to me, and better yet, how you were the first one to discover it is also a mystery. However, one thing is becoming clear to me: if you were the one who allowed The Shadow to take a physical form, then I believe you are not even believed to be missing.”

“Why not?”

“Because it has taken your form.”


	7. Blue Eyed Sheikah

After a lengthy conversation, Nate brought Ilysa back to the cabin for the night, as she had only woken up mid-day. He told her that she was welcome to stay in “the common room” as he had called it, but she insisted on going back to the cabin; she felt she had more privacy tucked away in the cabin. Nate had tended to the fire before saying goodnight and leaving once more.

With the room to herself, Ilysa sat down on one of the two couches, and brought her legs up to rest across the cushions so that she was sort of tucked into the back of the couch and the arm, and so that she faced the warm fire. For a while, she didn’t even try to process what was happening, or what had happened; she merely sat on the couch and gazed inattentively into flickering flames. Every now and then, a log in the fire would crack and the embers would fly upwards into the fireplace before falling back down into the orange glow. Ilysa watched the flames, and the embers for a while until she found her eyelids becoming more and more heavy, and it wasn’t long before her eyes were closed and in the brief moments before she fell asleep, the only sounds were the cracking of the fire, and the dull sound of snow and ice bouncing off of the windows.

 

Ilysa found herself in a wooded area, with trees surrounding her in every direction. She was in some sort of clearing, the tall grass coming up to her knees. She looked around the clearing for any indication of a path that would lead her out, but the trees just seemed to get closer and closer together until she was completely trapped in by the trunks of the trees. A twig snapped behind her, making her turn around swiftly; in front of her now was a long, rectangular mirror that was floating in the air, almost completely perpendicular to the ground. The mirror didn’t seem to have any frame, rather the glass just ended in a very distinct clear line where reflection immediately turned into background. She stepped up to the mirror, but no reflection of her appeared in the glass; only trees occupied the smooth surface. She tapped the glass once with her finger, and the hard, smooth mirror seemed to ripple out like water until her reflection appeared and the surface became still once more. 

Her reflection seemed accurate enough, except for that her skin seemed paler than usual and her normally rare blue eyes were red, like a normal Sheikah’s should be. She never knew why her eyes were blue and everyone else’s were red, it was just always something extra to separate her from her fellow classmates. However this image of her had the distinct red eyes of her people that blinked back at her whenever she would; except, the reflection almost seemed to be a delayed image, because she would blink, open her eyes, and only once she had finished blinking would the reflection blink. Ilysa cocked her head a little bit, and the same delay happened again. She moved her arms with the same result. After a few moments, Ilysa stepped back from the mirror, expecting the image before her to step back as well, but it never did; the reflection just stood there, with its own expression of curiosity looking back at her.

Another twig snapped behind her, but when she turned her head to look, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. However, when she returned her gaze back to the mirror, her reflection was no longer her own; she was now looking at a dark figure of herself, with skin as black as night, and glowing red eyes that glared right into Ilysa’s. The Shadow stepped forward in the mirror, placing its dark hand against the other side of the glass. Despite her instinct, Ilysa stepped forward and placed her own hand on the glass, so that their hands lined up. Once both of their hands rested on the glass, the sharp, distinct edge of the mirror seemed to leak out a dark mist as the mirror became less and less opaque; after a short moment, Ilysa no longer felt the smooth texture of a mirror, but the cold, soft texture of someone else’s hand. The Shadow slowly dropped its hand to its side, and Ilysa did the same. They stood there for a moment looking at one another in silence before the Shadow lunged at Ilysa, wrapping its cold hands around her neck as she fell backwards onto the ground. She tried knocking it off of her, but the more she struggled, the tighter the black fingers around her neck got, until she was seeing spots and she was almost certain she felt something in her neck crack just as the Shadow above her bared a grimacing smile.

 

Ilysa shot up on the couch taking in a huge gulp of air, her hands instinctively going up to her neck to feel the completely normal, unbruised, smooth skin that was there. Completely aware that sleep would not come back to her after that terrible nightmare, she got up off the couch and made her way to the pile of clothes at the foot of her bed. She got dressed into a similar outfit from the day before, however this one had a brown leather jacket to go with it, and once she put it on, she definitely felt quite good about how it fit her. The jacket was lined like the rest of her clothes, but it also had arm guards of sorts that felt like they were made of a kind of metal, and had been painted a navy blue, although the edges showed signs of wear and tear. She walked over to the mirror, and inspected the braided bun in her hair for a moment, trying to see if she took it out if she could ever recreate it. Unsure if she could ever do it herself again, she began to unbraid her hair until it flowed down past her shoulders, loosely and freely. She ran her hands through the thick, white hair for a while to get some knots and tangles out, until it was completely smooth all the way through. She then grabbed a few strands on the right side of her face, and braided them, but leaving a bottom portion of it unbraided. She repeated this process on the left side. Then she grabbed the rest of her hair and pulled it back, keeping her left hand so that it would fall out before grabbing the right braid and wrapping it around her head, the loose, unbraided section meeting up with the section of hair in her left hand. She then carefully switched hands and brought the left braid up, before she braided the two smaller braids into the larger, middle section of hair. When she was done, she had a band of braids around the sides of her head that met and blended into a larger braid that went down the centre of her neck. Some of her bangs had escaped the process and she sort of just brushed them to the side with her hand. Although it wasn’t as elegant as the braided bun Nate had given her, she did feel a bit more comfortable with her image in the mirror. Something about the slightly messier braids helped her see herself as someone who she felt she was, not someone she felt she wanted to be.  
Giving herself a quick smile in the mirror, Ilysa turned away and walked over to the counter across the cabin, where Nate had laid out an array of gear for her to use, ranging from belts to gloves, and knives to bows. She put on a gray belt that looked to be her size, and equipped it with two small knives that were quite different from the daggers she had lost in the river. Although they were lighter and slimmer, they seemed to fit in her hands better, and the blades themselves actually seemed longer. She grabbed one of the two bows that were there and held it out in front of her; the wooden bow was finely crafted, and the wood was engraved with veining details that resembled vines and leaves. She took a moment to equip herself with a quiver stocked fully with around thirty perfectly made arrows. She looked around at the other gear to see if there was anything that she really wanted to grab, but the only other thing she took was a single empty bottle, because she knew how useful those suckers could be.


	8. Glacier Meadows

The weather had calmed down since she had fallen asleep, and now the night was calm and quiet, and the fresh layers of snow and ice crunched under her feet as she walked towards the riverbank at the south edge of Nate’s property. She estimated that it was more of an estate in its prime, with ruins of stone walls and crumbling buildings nearby the cabin and the barn. The two buildings were situated in the centre of the property, with sloping hills on the north and east sides, the river to the south, and fields to the west side, which is where she presumed Nate grew his crops in the warm season.

The sky was clear, and the moon was full, giving Ilysa enough light to guide her down to the river, which was also calm and glossy, but miraculously not frozen over. She followed the river upstream as far as her eyes could see, and she thought maybe she could see the Headwaters in the distance, but it was awfully hard to distinguish everything in the mostly white landscape. She turned her attention downstream, and followed the river with her eyes as far as she could see in that direction; with very little winding in this part of the river, she was sure that she could see an outline of dark navy blue across a large part of horizon. If that really was the ocean like she thought it was, then she was on the opposite side of the sea from her home, which isn’t where the Ice Mountains were supposed to be, at least not according to the texts that she had been studying, but maybe she had studied those maps wrong. Unlikely, but possible.

Despite her doubt as to where she was or was not, Ilysa walked right over to the glassy surface of the river and looked into her reflection once more; this image appeared before her as normal as her reflections had been her whole life, but the mirror version of her showed her a tired, anxious, and different version of herself that wasn’t entirely recognisable from the ambitious orphan child of the Sheikah with a seemingly limitless potential. The image before her showed an Ilysa that had grown spiritually, as if somehow, her entire life was leading her somewhere that was just now becoming apparent. Ilysa had read many times about the intricacies of fate, and how an individual’s choices were all driven by it. One may not necessarily heed to one’s fate, but one was solely responsible for making their own fate if they strayed from the path set out before them. If this adventure was part of a fate that she was merely being guided through, then perhaps it was high time she started making her own fate.

Ilysa outstretched her palm over the surface of the water, which began to ripple as her magic surged into the liquid, and as light began to flow out of her palm she could feel the energy draining from her slowly as she tried to reach out. What she was attempting to do was not something that the Sheikah used regularly, as the manipulation of the elements was among the hardest and most advanced forms of magic. However, Ilysa was well aware that her talent resided in the elements: her ability to walk across the sea demonstrated her control over the element of water, being capable of melting an entire frozen waterfall showed her sheer power over the element of fire, and she was now trying to tap into something far more difficult than anything she had ever done before. Theoretically, if she were able to mimic the exact elemental properties of the water of the Seaside Harbour, then she could potentially create her own spatial rift due to the dual existence of one body of water. It would be tricky though, because both bodies of water that she was working with were incredibly massive, and the harder she contemplated it, she realised that she could merely die trying. 

At least satisfied she tried, Ilysa withdrew from her efforts and watched as the surface of water in front of her became still once more. She watched the stillness of the water for a few moments before heading back towards the cabin. Halfway across the estate, something far off to her right caught her eye: off somewhere by the ruins behind the barn, was the soft glow of what must have been a lantern. As far as she knew, Nate was sound asleep inside the barn, so Ilysa could only assume that someone else was out there. In a quick, and likely slightly irrational decision, Ilysa took her bow in hand a nocked an arrow before making her way across the estate, past the barn towards the ruins. The ruins that were closer to the cabin appeared to mostly just be worn down walls, with a fairly small structure that must have been a building at some point. However, the closer she got to these ruins, the more she realised that at some point in time, there must have been a very large building, as the ruins that she was approaching still resembled the walls of some sort of square building, although the ceiling and roof had completely been destroyed by time. Or perhaps something else.

As she arrived at the edge of the building, she realised that it was sitting at the edge of a large cliff, which descended down completely vertically, where more ruins could be seen below. The light coming from the lantern began moving in the first part of the ruins, so Ilysa drew the arrow back, and warily walked into the ruins. As she rounded the corner around the wall, she saw that the light from the lantern had moved to the other side and down a staircase, which she presumed would take her down to the bottom of the cliff. Slowly, she crossed the ruins, taking note of a crumbling round structure in the middle of the room: she could only guess it might have been a statue or sculpture of some kind, or even a fountain. She arrived at the top of the staircase, which descended downwards at a rounded angle, and the light of a lantern could be seen towards the bottom. The walls on either side of the stairs were quite ruined, but they still stood tall enough that she couldn’t really see over them. Cautiously, Ilysa descended the staircase, one step at a time, until she was at the bottom, and she could see a singular lantern sitting on the ground in the middle of the remnants of what was at some point another room. There were no footsteps leading up to it, or leading away from it. Aware that something was not quite right, Ilysa kept her bow raised and the string drawn as she opened her mind to the area around her, scanning for whatever energy that had led her there. Initially, she couldn’t detect anything, but as she caught a glimmer of something and focused on it, she eventually could feel the presence of someone else, standing just behind the lantern. But there was nobody in front of her. But there must be someone there, because she could distinctly feel the energy of another person. Considering the options before her, Ilysa took several steps towards the lantern, hoping that the energy would show some sign of moving, but it did not. However, the closer she got to where the energy was coming from, the more and more a silhouette became visible, until she was standing right in front of the lantern, and an elderly woman was standing across from her. Although the woman was clearly in front of her, Ilysa observed that this woman was not entirely opaque, and her details became so blurry towards the ground that she appeared to just be floating there, rather than standing. The two of them stood there for some time before Ilysa realised that she still had her bow raised, with the arrow pointed almost directly at the woman’s face. Tentatively, Ilysa lowered the bow.

“Who are you?”

“I am Sofia, one of the protectors of Glacier Meadows.”

“One of?”

“I am the third of three protectors. I am sure you and I will be able to achieve everything we must before you return to where you came from and complete the challenges set out before you. It seems you have done well in forging your own powers and your courage, but you have much to learn yet.”

“How do you know anything about me?”

“I exist in the Silent Realm, and from here I am attuned to everyone with attributes of power, courage, and wisdom. You are strongly attuned to two of these attributes, but your lack of experience is evident with your attribute of wisdom, which is inferior to your other abilities.”

“I am young: one cannot expect wisdom in its fullest from a student.”

“Ah! Just now your wisdom showed itself in partial form, but you must gain the knowledge of history, and the knowledge of future in order to hone it in its truest form.”

“How would I acquire such knowledge?”

“If you wish to enter the silent realm and discover your wisdom, then take hold of the lantern before you and search for yourself.” Sofia faded from view as the light emitted from the lantern on the ground turned from a soft, fiery glow to an angelic blue light that slowly pulsed. Ilysa thought that perhaps her curiosity is what had put her there in the first place, but she also truly believed the apparition that had just appeared before her. Readjusting her grip on the bow in her hand, she bent down to pick up the lantern with her other hand. It felt like a regular lantern, and as she stood back up, she noted that it was of a regular weight compared to any other lantern she had used in her lifetime. However, she tried to move her feet and found that she was rooted to the ground, and for a moment she stood there in stillness unable to move her body entirely. Then, a sudden sensation of being pushed off of a cliff came over her (she was in fact familiar with the sensation) as the world around her changed into a different environment; it was dark, but yet it was not nighttime. Everything around her appeared to be translucent, although now that she noticed it, so was she; looking at her hands and arms in front of her, her body seemed to be made of an energy rather than flesh and blood, and the energy only partially filled the frame of her body, and it appeared to wisp around to create her shape. Through her partiality, Ilysa saw the glowing pattern on the ground around her, which appeared to form some sort of incandescent flower, with a secondary circle surrounding that. The runes within that secondary circle were from an ancient text that she couldn’t make out, but she did recognise one of the words: Trial. Ilysa looked past her immediate surroundings and saw a glowing object a few yards ahead of her, and it resembled a giant tear. Although she had very little idea as to what was happening, or what exactly a Silent Realm was, Ilysa knew that the object ahead of her was calling out to her, almost as if it was supposed to be a part of her.

“Ilysa,” Sofia’s voice called out to her, “You have entered the Silent Realm. They are domains of the spirit, typically only accessible to the goddess’ chosen hero. This particular trial will test the limits of one’s most lacking attribute; in your case, this trial will test your wisdom. Your spirit has temporarily separated from your physical body so that you may undertake this challenge. To reach a complete spiritual balance between courage, wisdom, and power, it is necessary for you to overcome this trial and undergo spiritual growth. To fill your spirit, you need to search for something called the Tears of the Silent Realm. There are many of them spread across this strange world. However, this is not as simple a task as it would seem. Your work in this realm is referred to as a trial for good reason. If you take even a single step outside of the protective circle you stand in, the Guardians of this world will wake up and pursue you, Ilysa. If a Guardian manages to land even a single hit on you, your spirit will shatter and you will fail the trial. I will eagerly be waiting your completion of this trial.”


	9. Nayru's Wisdom

After running around for what felt like an eternity, Ilysa had finally gathered all of the tears in the trial and had returned to the entrance. Upon re-entering the protective circle, she felt an enormous change somewhere deep within herself, and she thought that maybe she had just felt her spirit undergo the growth that Sofia had spoken of. She stepped into the centre of the runes on the ground, and felt the intense presence of something divine; a light flashed somewhere near her, and although no one appeared, she realised that suddenly an orb of magic had appeared in her hands. She held out her hands as the orb of magic pulsed and bounced back and forth between her palms, but after a moment, the condensed energy expanded and reverberated outwards, causing her to flinch and close her eyes. When she reopened her eyes, her surroundings had faded into a whiteness that filled everything in sight, leaving just a small circular clearing where the protective enchantments still lay on the ground. There were no other features to find outside of the circle, just an infinite realm of white.

Far off in front of her, a figure began to form and approach her, however unlike her encounter with the Shadow, this being appeared from a void of light, rather than a void of darkness. The being approached her until it stood just outside of the protective circle; the being bore no features at first, instead it merely stood there as an empty shell, although it appeared tall and slim. Slowly, the being began to mold itself to give itself facial features, and it soon also gave itself a feminine figure, and although it wore no clothes, Ilysa could tell that it was not naked, almost as if, it simply had the shape of a woman, but no other features that would distinguish it. Its whitish hue began to burn until the blank slate faded to a charred black, and although no flames were visible, Ilysa could hear the crackling of fire. As the woman in front of her became more and more charred, the smooth, flawless composition of its skin began to crack, just as if it was burning to embers. In a matter of moments, Ilysa had witnessed a being of pure light appear from an ether of sorts, and she witnessed it become tainted and turn dark. However, the figure merely stood there as it burned, the blank slate of her face remaining somewhat unchanged; although it had a nose and the outline of a mouth and indents where her eyes should have been, there were no other features that would lead Ilysa to believe that this being could express any sort of emotion. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the sound of fire ceased and the figure burned no more: it stood there for a moment, charred beyond imagination.

Ilysa found herself trying to understand the being in front of her. Where did it come from? Why did it burn? Why did it not appear to be in any pain? The more Ilysa contemplated the nature and existence of the being in front of her, the stronger the aura emanating from it became, as if it was becoming stronger the more that Ilysa tried to figure out the universal laws that applied to it. It reached a point where Ilysa was positive that the creature was giving off the strongest aura she had ever detected, and it was at that moment that the being in front of her burst, and its charred layer of skin was blown off by the surge of blue flame that engulfed the figure, revealing that the being was made entirely of a golden composition. As Ilysa stared into the face of what she could only presume to be the Goddess Nayru herself, Nayru brought her right hand up to her chest, in front of her heart, and held her hand there. In complete awe, Ilysa found herself mirroring this action, so that her left hand rested on her chest. As she did so, an onslaught of visions whizzed through her mind, as if something within her had been awoken, and she suddenly had the memories of everything that had been lying dormant within her: the battle between the Goddesses and the Shadow, Hylia’s Kingdom, the demons from the fissure, the creation of the land in the sky, the sealing of Demise, Hylia’s sacrifice, the reincarnation of Hylia as a mortal, the awakening of the hero’s spirit. All of those pieces of knowledge flooded her mind, and after processing all of the information for a few minutes, Nayru moved her hand to over her temple, and Ilysa found herself mirroring again. Once her fingertips reached her temple, another flood of visions filled her mind: the awakening of Hylia in mortal form, the trials of the hero, the construction of the Triforce, the resurrection of Demise, the victory of the hero, Demise’s curse, and the return of humans to the surface, and the downfall of Skyloft and the destruction of the surface. All of these memories and visions hit her like a brick wall: at once and hard. Ilysa fell to her knees as she felt her head almost physically throbbing with all of the new information, and most of her breath had been knocked out of her as she saw everything: past, present, and future.

It took Ilysa a few moments to gather her composure and stand up once again, and Nayru was still standing there, although she had returned her arms to her sides. The amount of blue flames that had engulfed Nayru had dissipated slightly, leaving more of just a glowing aura around her golden form. The two of them looked at each other for the longest time, just standing and observing. After several moments of silence, Nayru outstretched her hand, palm up, so that her arm was over the line of the protective circle, and as if she wanted Ilysa to take her hand. Unsure if she could refuse a goddess, Ilysa stepped forward and moved her hand to take the goddess’. The very instant their two hands touched, a flash of light blinded Ilysa for a moment, and when she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the ruins at Glacier Meadows, with a lantern held out in front of her, just as she had been standing when she had been taken to the Silent Realm. It was no longer pitch black outside, the eastern skies were tinted with a pinkish hue that indicated the rising of the sun, and that it was early morning now rather than late night. Ilysa looked around her, but there were no signs of Sofia, and other than the lantern in her hand, there was absolutely zero proof that she had actually experienced the Silent Realm and the encounter with Nayru. Except, she knew that it was real because she had the memories, and she could remember all of the visions she had been shown, including the destruction of the surface. That vision in particular had been the haziest, as if something about wasn’t entirely correct; considering the fact that Ilysa was on the surface, she could only assume that vision was one from a possible future, and that it was not guaranteed to happen, but she certainly could not allow it to come to fruition. The image of a massive island in the sky, crashing down upon Eldin Volcano and unleashing such an expansive explosion that all life in Hylia’s Realm would be destroyed. She tried to recall if she knew the cause of such a catastrophe, but was unable to find anything, and noted again that if it truly was a vision of the future, it was entirely possible to change the course of time and prevent such a disaster from occurring.

Ilysa took a deep breath in of the brisk mountain air, and held the breath in for a moment before releasing it out on a steady exhale, taking stock of everything that had just happened to her. Accepting it was one thing, but acting on it would be another completely different thing; a small part of her wanted to pretend that she hadn’t just undergone some sort of out-of-body experience and just go on with finding her way home, but she knew that wasn’t really an option anymore.


	10. Skià

Ilysa had been making her way back to the cabin when she saw some candle light and movement through one of the windows of the main building, and she decided to simply go in and talk to Nate, rather than try to sit still in the cabin by herself. She pushed open one of the barn doors and slid through before swiftly closing it behind her, trying not to allow too much of the heat to escape. She could see Nate in the kitchen on the other end of the building, making breakfast she assumed, and he looked up at her from across the room and grinned, but didn’t try to yell across the space. Rather, he waited until she crossed the barn into the living area before he said anything, so when she was about to sit down and he spoke, she actually flinched a little bit, clearly a little on edge.

“I take it you had quite the night last night.”

“You could say that, I_” Ilysa paused as she processed, “how did you know?”

“Sofia is an old friend of mine, and I have to say I’m glad to see you appear to be fine.”

“A little off-guard perhaps, but yes, I am fine. Did you know all of that was going to happen to me? You could probably give someone a warning next time.”

“Wasn’t my place to say anything; besides, you learned more this way hopefully.”

“Are you aware of exactly what I saw?”

“Anyone who completes the trial, granted there are very few, is granted something different. The Goddess’ Hero for example would receive gifts or equipment necessary for him to complete his journey, while anyone else was simply never designed to undergo the Silent Realm trials, and so they all experience it all a little differently.”

“Did you ever go through the trials?”

“I went through a trial of power, but that was before Hylia blessed me with the abilities that I possessed before the demon hordes attacked. I only went through the trial so that Hylia could determine that I was worthy of wielding such an important task, and, evidently, I was.”

“When you completed your trial, what did you see?”

“See? Nothing really, I was just given a powerful flame that could imbue any weapon I forged with magical properties; now that you’ve undergone the trial, you should know which weapons I did manage to forge before the demons attacked.”

“The Goddess Sword, the Four Sword, and… Demise’s Sword?”

“Indeed. I’m afraid Demise’s Sword was my first attempt, and it did not go overly well, but it was never a failure on any level. When I made the sword, Hylia simply deemed it unsuitable for her intentions, and asked me to make another. Originally, Demise’s Sword was just a prototype of the Goddess Sword, with a spirit similar to the one I had later created for the Goddess Sword. However, when Demise and his demons attacked us later, he seized this blade and corrupted it with his hatred. Ghirahim is the result; a spirit of the sword corrupted by evil and darkness. Somehow, Hylia knew that the first sword was corruptible, which is why she made me imbue the Goddess Sword with not only the spirit Fi, but also the unique connection to the Hero’s spirit. Later of course, with the powers of the Goddess Flames, the Goddess Sword would become the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil’s Bane. I had only just finished the Four Sword when the demons attacked, and I was tasked with taking that blade and hiding it, far away from the clutches of evil.”

“If you sealed away the Four Sword that must mean that the ruins around the estate are the ruins of the temple you sealed the Four Sword in.”

“Yes, I constructed a temple to seal the sword in; it was supposed to parallel the Sealed Temple that would one day house the Master Sword, but that ideal did not last long. You see, while Hylia was in fact the goddess that Din, Nayru, and Farore entrusted to protect the Triforce, she was not the only one left to guard this realm; two other deities acted as the embodiments of the attributes of the Triforce. Hylia, as you may have guessed, embodied Nayru’s Wisdom, leaving both Din’s Power and Farore’s Courage. It would seem that somehow, Demise came to embody Din’s Power, while a third deity, a particularly fierce one at that, acted as Farore’s counterpart, and he was the Hero of the Goddess before the fissure cracked the earth. He was known under many titles and names, but perhaps his most common was Oni.”

“I remember reading an old myth about the Fierce Deity: he was a powerful warrior who disappeared before Demise ever showed up. He is thought to be a parallel to Hylia in another part of the world, where he fought with one of Demise’s most powerful lieutenants. The two fought in a major battle, and ultimately, both were defeated in some way or another. The myth is really quite vague and distorted; I’ve read over eight different versions, and those are all just part of the Sheikah archives.”

“I’m not even sure if that part of the story is true, but what we do know, is that while Oni fought Majora, and Hylia fought Demise, most of the realm was utterly ruined. It took millennia of healing to repair the damages, and not even this temple was spared in the initial wars. Sofia was my partner, the two of us having built the temple together, and it was she who took the sword and hid it somewhere else before the demons laid waste to these parts. She never returned to me fully, only coming back as a spirit, and she took the secret of where she hid it to her grave.”

“Sofia was part of that original kingdom of Hylia, correct?”

“Yes.”

“What was her role in that society? You said before that everyone had a specific role, and I can only assume that you weren’t the only one granted with some kind of power.”

“Sofia was named one of the seven sages of Hylia, as was I. The seven sages were each given a specific power that would aid the goddess in her quest to rid the world of evil, before it even emerged. I was named Sage of Fire, and was thus given the power to use fire to forge weapons. Sofia was named Sage of Spirit, and was given the ability to access the Silent Realm, with the initial idea of guarding the ultimate power when it was sealed within that realm. Among us were the Sages of Forest, Water, Light, Shadow, and Time.”

“Do you know who those sages were?”

“I believe the only one I did know was the Sage of Light, who accompanied the humans to Skyloft, after having his identity sealed away, to someday be awakened. As for the others, I cannot say: the battles with the demons separated us and I have never been able to communicate with the others ever since. Although after the passing of Hylia into her mortal form, I lost my powers, and I can only assume that the others did too. I would seem that Sofia only maintains her connection to the Silent Realm because she passed away before Hylia sacrificed herself.”

“You’re still immortal though, evidently: I would say that indicates that you maintained at least some partiality of your powers, perhaps not enough to create any new weapons, but there must still be something in you to have lived for so long.”

“Perhaps, but either way, I no longer possess the resources necessary to forge weapons, even if I did have access to my powers. Furthermore, I believe that your powers should be our primary focus moving forward.”

“Then yours can be our secondary focus: agreed?” She looked at him through her red eyes, and she almost could have seen the thought as it clicked somewhere behind his green eyes. He had thought of something, and slowly but surely, a charming grin appeared on his lips.

“Agreed, and I think I know just where to start.”

“Before we do,” Ilysa averted her eyes to the table as a thought popped up in her head, as if someone had thrown it there. The thought, or memory, or whatever it was, sat right at the front of her mind, waiting to be used, “does the word ‘Skiá’ mean anything to you?”

Nate went completely stiff at the sound of the word. His jaw tensed and he put down the mug he had been drinking from. He sat there for a moment, before leaning back against the back of the wooden chair. His eyes were wide and wild, but the rest of his body showed no such characteristics. “Skiá is an ancient word. It is not one that was used, as over the years its meaning brought fear and paranoia to Hylia’s Kingdom. Skiá is a primal word, and its origins can be tracked far beyond the days of mortal beings. In its original language there is no direct translation in our speech, but there are words close to it. The most accurate translation is along the lines of ‘Without Light’, which of course has a more contemporary translation today.”

“The Shadow.”

“Yes, Skiá is the dark being that fought against Din, Farore, and Nayru. However, its name doesn’t entirely suit it. You see, the word shadow implies an area without light, and it is simply the lack of light. That demon is far worse than that; while there has been no way to prove any of this, it doesn’t exist in a place without light because it is so dark, it absorbs light. It is the epitome of corruption in that sense. No light can escape its darkness.”

“So it isn’t a creature that fears light, but a creature that controls it?”

“I believe that’s a fair statement. That is why we believed that the goddesses sealed it in a void of sorts, so that there would be no light for it to control or absorb. And, over the years, parts of itself broke off and created the other demons of this realm. As I said before, the laws of the realm indicate that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. So, if all of this is true, Skiá is not nearly as powerful as it was before it was sealed. I believe that with the amount of evil that has been born unto this land, that Skiá cannot be much more powerful than you or I. However, as I said, there was no way to prove any of this, so all of this is mere speculation.”

“Well, for our sakes, I hope your speculation is accurate.”

 

Ilysa and Nate ate a nice breakfast before Nate gave Ilysa a change of clothes and asked her to meet him at the foot of the ruins, where she had met Sofia. Ilysa had taken the clothes given to her and went back to the cabin to change out of her tunic and into the new garments. Similar to her desert clothes, there was a white, full-body under armour, made of a particularly thick yet light fabric that covered her legs, torso and upper arms, but it left her forearms bare. Over the under armour was a royal blue tunic, with a loose, flowing lower section that went past her mid thighs, while the torso of it was tight fitting and the arms were loose and flowed past her hands, giving them the appearance of a sorcerer’s robe.

When Ilysa got to the foot of the ruins, she saw that Nate had drawn runes in a circle, around the centre of the room, and in the middle of it was three objects: the lantern, an orange orb, and a plain sword. Nate himself was waiting for her near the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a similar outfit to hers, except instead of royal blue, his was a deep crimson colour. He gestured for her to walk towards the circle, and so without questioning him, she did. Up close, she could see that the runes outlined the shape of the Triforce, with each object sitting in its respective spot: the lantern was over the Triforce of Wisdom which had been painted with a blue paint, while the orange orb was over the Triforce of Power which had been painted with a red paint. However, the sword was not over the Triforce of Courage, rather in the area between the three Triforces. 

“In the past,” Nate started from somewhere behind her, “the forging of the blades was very ritualistic, and in its rites, a symbol of each Goddess was involved in the process. That orange orb is Din’s Pearl, bestowed upon me by Hylia after I completed the trial of power. It has many purposes, one of which was to forge the blades that I was responsible for crafting. The lantern, as you’re already well aware, possesses a unique connection to the Silent Realm, and was bestowed upon Sofia after she completed a trial of wisdom. Its flames are one and the same with Nayru’s Flame.”

“Where is the third object? The one representing courage?”

“During the demon wars these grounds were ruined, as you had observed before. It was at that time that I lost the object previously used in the ritual to represent Farore. The first task in restoring my powers lies in finding that item, or a new item suitable to the task at hand. Your training starts with finding it.”

“You want to train me, but making me find a long-lost object that you haven’t told me anything about?”

“I want to train you by allowing you to hone your powers. You completed a trial of wisdom last night, which means that in theory, your soul is perfectly balanced between the attributes of wisdom, power, and courage. That means that you currently possess every attribute necessary to use your magic unlike you ever have before. You are powerful, brave, and you now possess the mind capable of wielding all of it.” Nate stepped out from behind her to her side, looking directly at her, but she found she wasn’t willing to turn towards him to see the look she could feel him giving her. “You are now among the highest ranks of mortals to ever walk this world, and you are completely unaware of just what that means.” Keeping her focus on the circle, Ilysa pondered those words in her head before responding:

“I am not among the highest ranks, I am merely of a heightened state of being. I am no more powerful than before, simply capable of focusing that power into a more efficient magic. The only thing that has changed within me is the knowledge that Nayru gave me, and I am not convinced that the knowledge in my head is suitable for any mortal; it is the kind of information that tears people apart, that haunts people’s dreams, and that pulls people into the depths of fear that breed hate and evil. Standing here, in what was once a beautiful temple that has been shattered by such evil, I am beyond aware that the serenity of these parts cannot exist if the knowledge I now possess comes to pass in actuality.”

“Those are some wise words; I guess the trial really did work.”

“But did it? Is my soul actually balanced now, or am I falsely lead to believe that a bunch of visions make me wise? How can such a dark past, present, and future possibly lead to light?”

“A wise woman once said to me ‘As long as there is light, there is hope’, and I reckon she was right. Darkness will always try to blot out the light, but that’s the thing, one cannot exist without the other. It’s a game of balance, one always trying to tip the scales in their favour, but in the end, we always end up in equilibrium at one point or another.”

“A game of balance…” Ilysa bounced those words around in her head for a moment, letting the ideas jump around with it until one stood out in her mind. “If we use any object to represent courage in the ritual, as long as it balances the other two objects, it will work. We’ve got two very saturated items, each being directly connected to their respective goddess, so we just need an object with a similar connection to Farore.”

“Yeah, I had gathered that, but Farore’s Pearl doesn’t just fly around waiting to be caught in a net. Things of equal significance are hard to come by.”

“The way I see it, we have two significant reflections: Farore’s Pearl, as well as Farore’s Flame, which is going to be hard to find, but is probably easier to find than the pearl. But, we can’t reach the flame until after the Goddess’ Hero has imbued his blade with its fires, and the pearl is probably too far out of reach.”

“So unless I’m mistaken Ilysa, that puts us back at zero.”

“It would, unless we were willing to try something a little outside of the box.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“The Goddess’ Hero is one of the purest symbols of courage this realm will ever know, yet he must have a perfectly balanced soul before he can harness the power of the Triforce to destroy Demise.”

“Okay, I’m following so far.”

“So, if the Hero can both be a symbol of pure courage while also being balanced, then I should be able to act as the object of courage in your ritual.” Ilysa finally turned to face Nate, and as soon as she turned, she realised how close he had been that whole time. She was close enough that she could feel his breath, and if she hadn’t been so caught off guard, she might have enjoyed it. A little flustered, Ilysa stepped back a few steps while averting her eyes to the ground. After a quick second, she returned her focus to Nate who hadn’t moved much. “What do you think?”

“I think it could very well just work, but I’ve never performed the ritual with a living thing before, the rules might change a little. Are you still willing to try, knowing that?” He looked right into her blue eyes, and she looked right back into his soft green eyes. Knowing that these two different colours were meeting each other’s gazes, made something stir in her chest. In all of her life, she could only recall red eyes, and never ones so soft and calming. Something in her brain made her step towards him, and he met her in the middle. This time, she could feel his breath, and she was sure that he could hear her heartbeat if he wanted to. His hand caressed her neck as they pressed their foreheads together.  
“Ilysa!” a familiar voice shouted from the bottom of the steps. Ilysa and Nate immediately broke apart, and Ilysa was sure that her face would have melted had she not been so startled. Across the ruins, with a group of three other Sheikah, was Ignaas.

“Ignaas? What are you doing here?” Ilysa took a few steps forward towards him, before her gut told her to stop in her tracks. 

“Looking for you of course.”

“How did you find me?”

“Irsia and her guard have been trying to track you since you disappeared. They weren’t very optimistic until a powerful energy surge was detected in the harbour. They looked into it and found that it matched an identical surge in the river here.”

“Since I disappeared?”

“Yes, you_ you were pushed off of a cliff by Skiá.” Her stomach twisted in knots at the pronouncement of that word. She stepped back towards Nate until her shoulder was touching his.

“No one back home would know that word, funny thing that you happen to.”

“I suppose that’s probably true,” he took a step forward and raised his right hand, before snapping his fingers, which made the three other Sheikah disappear in a whirl of dark smoke. “I guess I don’t need to keep up this charade then.” His skin began to char, similar to how Nayru had after her trial. Eventually, the shape of Ignaas began to morph into a shape that mirrored Ilysa’s. As the Shadow took shape, Ilysa used her magic to summon the three objects from behind her. The lantern, orb, and sword all flew out around her and Nate, and stopped in front of them; Nate grabbed the sword and orb while Ilysa grabbed the lantern, unsure of how it would help her in any way. The shadow in front of her now appeared as a dark reflection, with those piercing red eyes looking straight into her own blue ones. “I never did thank you for discovering me down there, it was quite lonely after all those years. I was delighted when such a vibrant spirit such as your own appeared before me. I have to say I won’t entirely enjoy destroying your soul,” Skiá took another step forward as a sphere of dark magic began to pulse in its hand, “although I will definitely enjoy destroying it a little bit.”

“You’ll have to wait, demon.” Nate held out an empty hand while holding the pearl in front of his chest, and after a moment of silence, an incredible blast of fire shot out of his hand towards Skià. At the same time, Ilysa grabbed Nate by the shoulder with her free hand as she concentrated everything she had on a specific spot. She forced her eyes shut as she focused, and she felt something shift in her mind as the heat of the fire was suddenly gone. She kept her eyes closed, but she could tell that it had worked. There wasn’t a breeze, there wasn’t a sound.


	11. Miracle Child

“What just happened?” Nate was still standing beside her, and as he moved away from her she lost contact with him: she hadn’t opened her eyes yet. “Where are we?” She heard his steps as he took a few steps one way, and then more steps in the opposite direction, pacing frantically around her. “Ilysa? Where are we?” Ilysa kept her eyes closed. She knew that it had worked, she had teleported them exactly where she wanted to, but she hadn’t laid eyes on this place since Irsia had discovered her in the desert, and part of her didn’t want to see it again. Ilysa had lived almost her entire life in the desert, and she knew that she wasn’t the same scared little girl anymore, but part of her didn’t want to face the truth: despite all of her growth and strength, she would still never know why she was forced to grow up all alone. Why did her parents abandon her, and in Lanayru Desert of all places? “Ilysa, are you okay?”

“I’m okay, just_” she opened her eyes, “just give me a second please.”

They were standing in a large cavern, which was around the size of the barn back at Glacier Meadows. Ilysa was very familiar with her current surroundings, having spent years using it as a shelter and home. She was rescued by Irsia over a year ago, but nothing had changed in her old cave in all of that time. The cave was surrounded my mostly flat and rounded stone and rock that had formed over the years since the luscious area had dried up. The opening of the cave wasn’t as high as the cave itself, meaning that whenever you entered or exited, you had to duck under to fit in the opening. Although spacious and reasonably sheltered, the cave didn’t offer much in terms of comfort. Over the years, Ilysa had managed to collect tumbleweeds and other precious materials to make a sort of mat where she used to sleep, and that was situated over in the far corner. Not too far from the mat, was a stockpile of low quality weapons, including three spears, two bows, around fifty arrows, and a poorly made sword she had been making from scrap metal around the time she was discovered. On the opposite side of the cave, there were signs of a fire pit, with a wooden bench placed next to it. Next to the bench was an old wicker basket, which caused a tear to well up in her eye. She had only been a small child when she was abandoned here, too young to remember her parents, but old enough to be capable of fending for herself. Inside that basket, was a stockpile of dehydrated foods that she was sure her parents had left with her, and in all the time she spent in solitude, she had never managed to use it all. She remembered often feeling like there was an infinite amount of food in that basket, as no matter how much she had used, there always seemed to be more waiting underneath. This cave had served as her home for the better part of fifteen years or so, of course there weren’t many ways to keep track of how long she had spent in here, as a child’s priority isn’t marking the days on the cave wall. Ilysa figured she was around four years old when she was abandoned here, and she had spent between fifteen and eighteen years in the cave, putting her somewhere around twenty-one years old. In human societies, Ilysa knew she would have been considered a young adult, but among the Sheikah, she was still just a child. 

Ilysa walked towards the entrance of the cave, ducked as she stepped outside, and she had to squint as her eyes adjusted to the bright desert sun. Her sight was instantly familiar and in a strange way satisfying to see once more: in front of her was a flat dune that stretched out for several leagues before the dune was harshly contrasted by the rockiness and height of the soaring Lanayru Mountains. The mountains surrounded this particular dune on all four sides, with only a single valley to enter and exit from on the far right from the cave. The dune was situated within a day’s hike to The Temple of Time, which is where Ilysa knew they had to head next. The temple site saw the most traffic of the Sheikah, as it allowed for them to freely explore various regions in different time zones outside of the constraints of the temporal shift at the Seaside Harbour. The Temple of Time would give them their best chance of being reunited with her tribe, but it was also a very likely place to run into Skiá.

Her ears twitched as she heard Nate come out from inside the cave and take a few steps, stopping just a little bit behind her,

“Where are we, Ilysa?”

“This was my home for many years.”

“You lived out here?”

“I was left here as a child, and was forced to survive in the desert. This cave is approximately located about a two-hour hike to the Temple of Time, and is situated between several necessities; there is a spring just north of here, and if you walk far enough east you can catch a glimpse of Eldin Volcano, although I’ve never ventured all the way. When I was living here, it was in the same era as the Hero of the Goddess, and considering it looks just the way I left it, I guess we’re in that era now.”

“See, I haven’t really been keeping track of time that much, so I guess that means you’ve been in that era ever since you ended up in the Ice Mountains.”

“I guess the spatial rift at the bottom of Lanayru Gorge was outside of the time shift zone.”

“Well, what does that mean for us now? You know where and when we are, so I’ll follow you on this one.”

“I guess the smartest thing to do would be to hike out towards the Temple of Time. From there we can either make it all the way to the Seaside Harbour where my people are, or travel through time or something. I’m pretty sure that’s our best plan.”

“Will Skià expect us to go there?”

“Probably, but perhaps we do have one advantage: if we completely refrain from using magic, it will have no way of tracking us. At the very least, we only rely on minimal magic, like making fire and things like that.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? If we leave now, we can get to the Temple of Time before the sun even sets… right?”

“Yeah, we should be able to,” Ilysa peered out across the valley to the west. “Unfortunately, we’ll have to exit this valley through the eastern pass and go all the way around, as that’s the only way out of here, unless you want to go mountain climbing.”

“Is it faster to go through the mountains?”

“Much faster. It’s two hours if we go in a straight line, if we have to go all the way around, it’ll take us closer to six hours.”

“Mountain climbing it is then.”

 

The mountains were just as relentless as Ilysa had remembered. They would arrive at the Temple of Time fairly quickly, but they had only been trekking for around forty minutes and they were both already feeling the exhaustion. They had both ditched a few layers of their clothes from Glacier Meadows, both of them now sporting just the white under armor and a pair of boots. She knew Nate was only a few steps behind her, and every now and then she felt a little self-conscious knowing that the under armour didn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination, but she could only hope that the exhaustion would distract him from her figure for a while.

So far, most of their trip had been ascending the mountain side, so when they came up over a ridge and Ilysa could see out into the greater desert, she was relieved. Although they were only about halfway, Ilysa could now see a glimpse of the Temple of Time on the horizon, and the path between them and it was mostly descent, which pulled a sigh of relief from within her.

“That there,” Ilysa pointed to the silhouette of the temple in the distance, “that’s the Temple of Time. Things should be easier from here on out.”

“Maybe we can take a minute first then, to catch our breath?”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good call.”

Nate proceeded towards a cliff face to their right, which provided a few feet of shade from the desert sun. He lowered himself to the ground and sat back against the cliff. Ilysa sort of stood there for a moment, watching him, before she realized she was standing idly in the sun and took a seat next to him. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Nate lightly cleared his throat,

“How old were you when you were left out here?”

“I figure I was somewhere around four, and I was out here for fifteen to eighteen years.”

“Maybe you won’t ever see it this way, but that’s amazing. I’m pretty sure that counts as a miracle, if I’m being completely honest.”

“If I’m being completely honest, I’ll agree that it was a miracle, but there was nothing amazing about it. I lived in complete isolation throughout my entire childhood, what’s amazing is that I’m not debilitated in some way, or permanently traumatized. The desert is an awful place to be for any period of time, let alone your whole life.”

“Well, I think you must’ve had someone in your corner, cheering you on from somewhere, because there’s no way the average child would have survived.”

“What, you think I had a guardian angel or something?”

“Or something.”


	12. Reunion

“What the hell happened here?” 

“I think I actually know the answer to that.”

“Indulge me, then.”

“Parts of my vision included quick glimpses of the Hero’s mission, and I remember seeing something here, but I had no idea when it was. The Hero and the mortal reincarnation of the Goddess reunited briefly here, but some demon intervened and the Goddess’ servant had to destroy the gate in order to protect the goddess. If that has already happened, then we are much closer to the defeat of Demise than I had thought.”

“Alright, that all seems fair enough, but I’m unclear as to where we go from here.”

“We have to head to the Seaside Harbour, from there I should be able to activate a time shift stone and tune it to the unique frequency needed to bring us to the Sheikah village.”

“Well, we made it this far, I suppose we can just keep going. We’re in the heart of the desert now, so it shouldn’t be too far,” he paused and looked around the temple, “right?”

“It really shouldn’t take us very long_” 

“I was wondering when you might show up.” Ilysa had never heard a more comforting voice before. She turned around to see that Irsia had somehow snuck up on them. “Things have gotten a little weird since you’ve been gone, but I’m glad to see you’re still in one piece, young one.”

“Forgive me,” Nate spoke up and took a few steps so that he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Ilysa, “but we need to be sure that you’re really you.”

“So the Shadow found you after it left the village? It had somehow posed as Ilysa and deceived us all for a few days, but it slipped up when it failed to recognise Ignaas. He immediately informed me that something was awry, and it wasn’t too much later that I forced it to reveal itself to us.”

“That sounds very plausible, chief, but my friend is right, I need you to prove to me who you really are.”

“I understand, young one. Do you remember how you got your green sash? I remember it quite well: it was during your first expedition after joining the tribe, and you lost your footing inside the Lanayru Mines. You fell ten feet down a cliff edge, and caught yourself with your arm, which didn’t appreciate it. You had broken your arm, and when I found you, I used that sash as a sling for your arm. When I gave it to you, I told you that it would keep us connected for as long as we lived, and that you could always rely on me for aid. You took it everywhere you went after that.” Irsia looked at Ilysa for a moment, “Well you used to take it everywhere you went, at least.”

“It’s her,” Ilysa sighed, and then put up her finger gesturing for them to wait. She pulled off her right boot and held her leg out in the air: wrapped around her ankle was the bright green sash. “I am so relieved it’s really you Irsia.”

“Just as I am relieved to see you alive and in one piece. What’s more, you seem to have made a good friend along the way.” Irsia stepped forward towards Nate, stopping just in front of him. “I never dreamed I would see you again Athanaton.”

“I never imagined I would see anyone again, let alone you Irsia.”

“Perhaps it’s fair to explain to Ilysa, but not here. We should head somewhere less exposed first: the ship is waiting for us at the Seaside Port, allow me to take us there.” Irsia grabbed Ilysa’s hand before grabbing Nate’s shoulder, and in a flash, the three of them were standing on the pier at the harbour, although it was in its desert-state. A single timeshift stone had been left on the pier though, which Irsia prompty blasted with a quick burst of magic, transforming the landscape around them back to the arid paradise. Irsia gestured for the other two to head up to the ship deck, and once all three of them were on board, Irsia aimed her hand at the timeshift stone. However, before Irsia blasted the stone, Ilysa was able to catch a glimpse of the Sheikah village, which appeared to have been badly burnt and bombed.

In an instant, the vision was gone, and they were all onboard the ship and contained within its own timeshift stone. A few Sheikah and Robots were scattered around the deck, but there wasn’t any frenzy of activity compared to when the ship would usually come to dock; the energy Ilysa detected was a grim one, as if the morale of the entire ship was low and crushed.

“What happened in the village?” Ilysa asked Irsia without looking towards her; she was too focused on the long faces of the people around her.

“I told you that The Shadow had deceived us. When it was evident that we had been deceived, I confronted it at the centre of the port, with notable tribesmen positioned around the area; it did not like being confronted, and it lashed out, unleashing dark magic everywhere, devastating our infrastructure. Fortunately, no one was badly injured in the ordeal, only a few cuts and bruises before I managed to chase it out of the village. Had I known precisely what I was going up against, I might have been able to better it.”

“Was the village evacuated after?”

“I did my best to ensure the safety of our people, getting most of the village on the sandship, while the remainder were directed to head to the site in the Ice Mountains. Now that we’re onboard the ship, I must go tell Skipper to take us away from the mainland. Excuse me.”

Ilysa turned to Nate, who had been fairly quiet thus far. He merely looked at her and gave her a comforting look, a look that made her want to hug him, to return the feeling of comfort. She abstained for a moment though, unsure of exactly what was appropriate. He seemed to know her hesitation, and it was him who stepped forward and wrapped one arm around her, pulling her into an embrace, while his other hand rested on the back of her head, keeping her close to him. She took note that her head was at level with his shoulder, and she hadn’t exactly realised that he was significantly taller than she was until that very moment.

“You’re home now,” he whispered to her, “That’s half the battle, I figure.”

“Maybe, just as long as the next half doesn’t surprise me at every turn like the first half did.”

“I’m not sure that’s something we have control over.” He loosened her hold of her, which she took as a hint to step back away from him, even though when she did, she wasn’t sure why she wanted to go right back and tuck her head into his chest. She’d half to think about that urge later.

“Well, now we know what we’re up against, we’ve got backup now, and we have some time to come up with a plan. This is our best chance to eliminate as many surprises as we can.”

“Maybe we can even give Skiá a surprise of our own,” Nate said as he took the sword off of his belt, “I think I’ve thought of a way to bring it down to our level.”

Irsia reappeared as the ship began moving, “you’ll have to indulge us on your idea Athanaton, but perhaps it would be best if we bring Ilysa up to speed on everything; I promised you I would tell you everything after the expedition, but I think it’s safe to say that you’ve completed one, so to speak.”

“You won’t have to catch her up on everything,” Nate chimed in, “She underwent a Trial of Wisdom, and she learned many things as her gift for completing it. We can start with the Old Kingdom and go from there, I think.”

“Let’s go inside to discuss things further, away from prying ears.”

 

Irsia had taken them to Skipper’s Cabin where she had curtained off a small section, calling it her study. Behind the curtains was a large table with numerous texts spread across it, many of them opened to specific pages. Around the study there were various pages that had been torn out of the books and spread out on the wall, as if she had been making a new text with the old ones. A few images on some of the pages around the area immediately stood out to Ilysa, depictions of darkness battling the light, the Triforce surrounded by clouds, and even one page that had been painted entirely black except for two bright red eyes: that one had sent a chill up her spine. Irsia walked over to the table and picked up one of the texts that hadn’t been opened and held it out in front of her; Ilysa noted that the leather binding appeared to completely untouched, with golden markings lining the black leather all over. The golden patterns glimmered in the light from the few lanterns around the study, and Ilysa could make out a pattern that resembled the Eye of the Sheikah.

“This book has never been understood as fact, its scripture depicted stories that were unbelievable until now. After the Shadow fled and everyone was safely evacuated, I immediately began going through every text in our archive, looking for any and all mentions of the Shadow. Before I saw it for myself, I always thought it to be some sort of horror story, made up to give reason to the Goddesses’ creation of the realm. However, the various mentions that I managed to find, I put on the wall behind me, trying to piece together a motive or a weakness to better understand it. This book in my hand is called the Shadow Codex, and it contains records of every known monster and demon. I had written it long ago, and long since forgotten of its content. Although the Shadow has no official entry in the codex, I did find a short passage on it that is not my writing. “The Being Without Light, which we call Skià, will imbue itself with mortal light and return to the world. Unbound by soul, it possesses the ability to take any mortal shape.”

“Yes, I believe that lines up with my idea,” Nate spoke up and he placed the sword on the table, “which would be to create a sword that seals him inside as its spirit, like Fi of the Goddess Sword. Spirits of swords become the soul of the sword, and thus we would bind him to a single form. Forced into a more tangible state, I believe we would be able to defeat him.”

“That could work: what do you think Ilysa? Ilysa?” Ilysa had been too distracted by the red-eyes in the image pinned to the wall to respond. She walked right up to it; although she knew this was just a picture, she couldn’t help but recall the feeling of dread instilled upon her when she gazed into the real version. This picture though, captured something about that feeling that intrigued Ilysa. “Ilysa? What is it?”

“This picture… which book is it from?” she didn’t take her eyes off of it.

“I believe that came from this one over here.” Ilysa heard Irsia move some books around, and then the turning of pages before she was nudged with a book in the arm. Ilysa grabbed it without taking her eyes off of the picture and held up the book beside the image, looking at the tearing of the page. Normally, when you’d tear a page out of a book, the tear would be uneven and appear jagged; the page on the wall was perfectly intact, as if it had been inserted after the other pages. Contemplating what that could mean, Ilysa dropped the book after a moment and took the image off of the wall. She turned the page around and saw that there was writing on the back. Furthermore, at the bottom of the page was a small piece of bright green fabric stuck on it somehow. Her eyes darted up to the top of the page, her heartrate increasing.

_To Myself,_

_I take it you’ve returned to the Sheikah, and are reading this from within the Sandship. It turns out time travel can be a girl’s best friend. I take it you recognise the fabric at the bottom of the page here to come from your sash, sorry to tell you that it’s going to get ripped someday. I can’t be too blatant, because I don’t know who might read these pages between now and you reading this, so you’ll have to be smart to figure this out. “At a spring of sky’s view will you encounter the being you seek. One burst of purest light will imprison the darkness eternally, and solid form shall take hold, and a reflective prison will contain the shadow.” ___

_Live your next days as if they’re your last. The world is about to change. ___

_Yours Eternally,_

_Ilysa_

“Ilysa, what is it?” Irsia’s hand was on her shoulder.

“I’ve written myself a letter it seems,” Ilysa turned to face her companions, “from the future.”


	13. Contrivance

Irsia had stared at her for a moment before crossing her arms, while Nate didn’t really show any sign of acknowledging what she had said, as if it was something ordinary to say. Ilysa found that she didn’t know how to really acknowledge her own words, and that she had sort of reflexively blurted them out. Truthfully, she had no evidence that her future-self had written this letter, other than a piece of bright green fabric that could or could not be of the same fabric as her sash. Of course, she couldn’t look at her own sash for signs of a matching rip or missing piece because if it really had been a letter from her future-self then she hadn’t ripped her sash yet. Her blood pounded in her brain for a few moments before the whole concept cleared up a bit in her head; it was just time travel, nothing too strange. She traveled in and out of timeshift zones all the time in her regular life as part of the Sheikah tribe, and the idea that her future self had traveled further back than her current present wasn’t the most foreign idea. In silence, she managed to piece together enough of the puzzle to determine that it was really possible for her future-self to have written this letter and place it so far back in time that it would have been like it was there the whole time.

Time travel: the easiest way to get a headache.

“Alright, so,” Ilysa thought that she had processed it in her own head, she might be able to run through everything with Irsia and Nate, “Supposedly, in the future, I wrote this letter and then proceeded far enough backwards in time to plant in within the archive to make it appear as if it was always there. In the letter, there are vague directions that I’m pretty sure are meant to defeat the Shadow, with keywords like Skyview Spring, Light Magic, and something about mirrors I think, I’m least certain about that last one if I’m being honest.”

“Light Magic,” Irsia repeated to herself, “interesting: what exactly does it say?”

“The riddle I seem to have given myself is this: ‘At a spring of sky’s view will you encounter the being you seek. One burst of purest light will imprison the darkness eternally, and solid form shall take hold, and a reflective prison will contain the shadow’. So, word for word, burst of purest light is what I interpreted as Light Magic. Any ideas on exactly what I am going to refer to in the future?”

“Yes, actually, I do.” Irsia unfolded her arms. “Our tribe has always explored and experimented with various forms of magic, such as truth, time, and shadow. More recently, we began studying a form of rare magic that we discovered during an expedition just over a year ago, around the same time I found you, Ilysa. This rare form of magic seemed to have been an attempt to mimic the evil brandishing magic of the Master Sword. Until now, we have focused our efforts in recreating the magic organically, that is to say, without the use of any conduit, relying solely on a magic user’s direct connection to magic energy. We’ve made progress, but nothing that would really be useful.”

“Do you think you could create enough of that evil brandishing magic to contain within, say, an empty bottle?” Nate’s eyes lit up, like the fire of his mind had just shot up. “I know I keep going back to the sword, but I managed to make the Goddess Sword, which can channel sacred energy and release it in a burst of magic. If we use enough of this Light Magic and combine it with the regular process to forge a Spirit Sword, then I think we may just have a weapon to use against Skià.”

“Alright, so, weapon? Check. Next on the list, Skyview Spring: I think we’re all familiar enough with the world to at least know where that is, correct?” She waited for two nods before continuing, “which means the last item on the list is ‘a reflective prison’.”

“Regrettably, I do not have an idea as to what that might refer to.”

“Yeah, me either… unless… one of you, define reflective for me.”

“Something that produces a reflection, ideally an opaque surface like a mirror, but I think my letter was vague for a reason.”

“Would water be reflective enough, do you think?”

“What are you thinking Nate?”

“I think, since we have to travel all the way to Faron Woods to get to Skyview Spring, that we make a quick stop at the Ancient Cistern, use the sacred flame to forge a sword, and before leaving, spring a trap for our shadowy friend. If we can use water as a reflective surface, then we can just make a room out of it or something, and lure Skià there after confronting it at the Spring.”

“That could work, and if the Hero has already awakened Farore’s Flame to strengthen his sword, then we should have no problem accessing it. I’m sure there’s some spell in a book somewhere that we can use to make a prison out of water too.” Ilysa could feel her spirit lifting.

“I think I may know someone who can help us with creating that prison, just leave me to it for a little while and I should be able to get some results,” Nate started with a straight face, but by the time he was done, there was an unmistakable grin spread across his face.

“Irsia, Nate: I believe we just created a bit of hope. Enjoy the feeling while it lasts because I don’t know how long we’re going to be able to hold onto it.” Nate furrowed his brow while Irsia recrossed her arms. “If we follow through on this plan, we will have successfully imprisoned a dark evil, not destroyed. That would mean that we are just pushing the problem off onto someone far down the line. Sound familiar?”

“That’s exactly what happened with Demise,” Irsia said blankly.

“Yes, it’s the same thing,” Nate said. “Demise was sealed away until the Hero would have to tools necessary to destroy him, and he will. We’re doing the same thing; we don’t have the right tools to destroy him, so the best thing we can do is seal Skià until someone has the ability to destoy it once and for all.”

“Alright, well, I don’t know about you two, but I think I can manage to agree to our plan, just as long as I don’t have to keep thinking about seeing myself with red-eyes: the look strangely doesn’t suit me.”

 

The three of them had gone their own ways for a while as they each tried figuring out the specifics of their plan. Nate had disappeared somewhere on the deck, probably trying to get a good look at the sacred flame onboard, while Irsia had taken off completely, probably to talk to someone at the Ice Mountain site to talk about Light magic. Ilysa, on the other hand, had simply gone out to the bowsprit to look out at the sea. Something about the sea to her was extremely calming: perhaps it was rooted in her life in the barren desert, or perhaps it was just a unique property that the sea had over her. The sea was the source of so much life, life that she knew wasn’t permanent in the region, and it had become a symbol of life and vitality for Ilysa. The sea provided life, and without it, there would be no life. The balance seemed fairly straightforward, yet at the same time she found it so complex. How could life be so easily brought down by the absence of a saltwater sea? It didn’t provide fresh drinking water or lush greenery, yet somehow it was the centre of life in Lanayru. It was just one of those things in life that was greater than a single answer, and at the moment, its lack of simplicity numbed the anxiety she had been feeling. It had numbed her mind to the point that she hadn’t even heard someone walk up behind her until they sat down next to her at the edge of the bowsprit. Slightly startled, Ilysa couldn’t help but flinch slightly when she looked to her side to see Ignaas sitting next to her.

“I’m glad you’re okay ‘Ysa, but that thing didn’t have me fooled for one second.”

“The fact that you’re the one who realised it wasn’t me ‘Naas_”

“I would recognise you in any shape, in any time. No imposters can even come close.” He placed his hand on top of hers where it had been idly laying on the wood of the ship. “Please don’t ever get attacked by primal evil beings again, you had me worried sick.”

“I’ll be sure to take it off of my agenda, you know, for your sake.”

“See, right there: an attitude that simply cannot be recreated. A unique form of sass and sarcasm that are truly indescribable.”

“I’m sure you could describe it if you really tried, I’ve heard you do it before, whether or not it’s flattering though is the real question.”

“Oh it’s definitely not flattering, that’s not a question. Very little about your personality is flattering, if I’m being truthful.” Ilysa removed her hand from under his a backhanded him in the shoulder. “And let’s not forget the physical abuse: definitely not on the flattering list.”

“Okay, that’s enough jabs at the girl whose been to hell and back.”

“Plus if you count the complete lack of modesty_”

“You jerk,” Ilysa retorted through suppressed laughter.

“Someone needs to keep you grounded, otherwise I hear you get some serious airtime when you get shoved off of cliffs.”

“Are you done?”

“Yeah I think so: it’s been a few days so it sort of built up, had to get it out all at once.”

“You’ve always had a way with words.”

“You’ve always had a way with me.” He turned a little from where he was sitting, so that his whole torso was facing her. “And if I’m being honest, the last few days have been a nightmare. It might not be the same thing you went through, but at first I was torn apart as to why you weren’t talking to me, and it wasn’t until it straight up didn’t know who I was before I realised that it wasn’t even you. Though, then I was just paranoid about your well being and I don’t think I’ve slept since.”

“Such a way with words,” Ilysa turned her neck to look back at him. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too ‘Ysa.” Their eyes met as the words left his mouth, and all of a sudden his mouth was all she could focus on; his lips were smooth and full but still appeared fairly dry and rough, making her curious as to what they would feel like pressed against her own. His lips were still parted from when he was speaking, but that was a few moments ago, and now she didn’t know how long ago it was, but for some reason the urge to kiss him overpowered her urge to completely withdraw from the situation and bring up something stupid about the weather or the sea. For some reason, she felt like Ignaas was going through a similar inner monologue, as his lips had remained parted, and he didn’t shy away from her gaze. Although she was still focused on his mouth, she could feel his gaze shift to her own lips until the tension in the air between them might have been visible if anyone had walked up behind them. 

Normally, sexual tension with Ignaas wouldn’t exist: their relationship had always been simple and straightforward, and reasonably platonic. However, there was no denying that at this very moment their relationship appeared to be very non-platonic. Sitting there, staring at this lips for what felt like an eternity, Ilysa thought back to their relationship, thinking about how Ignaas was the first person aside from Irsia that she had met in the tribe, and he had always looked out for her and provided her comfort and friendship when she had needed it most. During the year that she had been a part of the village, Ignaas had gone on several expeditions overseas, but each time that he returned, it was like he had never left and they would pick up right where they left off. Truly, her bond with Ignaas was the strongest bond she had come to know in her lifetime, and it seemed fair to say that she saw him as part of her future for a long time without really thinking much of it. Truth be told, she never gave any sort of romantic relationship any thought, let alone with her best friend. But her best friend was Ignaas, an incredibly strong and intelligent man who was very easy on the eyes who just so happened to be sitting in front of her at this very moment, with his lips parted slightly.

She couldn’t determine when they had gone from idly staring at each other to pressing closer to each other until their lips met in a soft yet passionate kiss, but, as far as she was concerned, nothing else mattered in that moment aside from him.


End file.
